The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) welcomes the joint call for input by the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England.
Across our work on crypto-assets and tokenisation, the WFE has consistently advocated for a technology-neutral, outcomes-based approach to regulation grounded in the principle of “same risk, same rules”. Where new products or services replicate the economic functions of regulated activities, they should be subject to equivalent regulatory standards. This is essential to maintaining market integrity, ensuring investor protection, and avoiding regulatory arbitrage.
While we support responsible innovation, including the use of distributed ledger technologies in financial markets, we consider that the most durable and scalable innovations are those developed within established regulatory frameworks. In this context, we emphasise the importance of bringing crypto-asset activities that resemble existing market functions within the regulatory perimeter, ensuring that innovation enhances – rather than undermines – trust, transparency, and resilience in financial markets.
Existing regulatory frameworks for financial markets provide a strong and largely sufficient foundation for addressing many of the risks in new market structures and technologies – many of the risks are not new.
Core principles such as market integrity, transparency, investor protection and effective supervision remain valid regardless of the technology or asset class involved. Our response sets out the WFE’s views across crypto markets, tokenised instruments, prudential considerations, and the role of tokenisation within regulated market infrastructure, with a focus on preserving the integrity and efficiency of the financial system.