Methodology · United Kingdom

How the UK tracker is built. Every fact has a source type: official (FCA, legislation.gov.uk), company, or press (secondary).

Sources

• FCA Financial Services Register · Registered and Formerly Registered Cryptoasset firms: every row (legal name, FRN, MLR status, status effective date), read with a headless browser on each update. Latest read: 21 Oct 2026 (68 rows).
• FCA · Cryptoassets: who needs to register: monthly MLR application data (received, registered, rejected, withdrawn, refused), as at 1 October 2026.
• FCA · FOI2026/00528: outcomes and average approval time by year received, 2020–2025.
• FCA Warning List pages for an exchange's own name or website (not clone or look-alike warnings).
• FCA · Cryptoassets consumer research 2025, Figure 27 (exchange use).
• SI 2026/102 and the FCA's new-regime pages for dates and rules.
• Public statements: the firm's own release or website first; press only when no company source exists, labelled “press · secondary”.

Source Hierarchy

1. official FCA Register, FCA pages and data, legislation.gov.uk.
2. company the firm's own release, website or terms.
3. press · secondary reporting, used only when no higher source exists and replaced once one is found.

Labels

• On FCA crypto register: at least one company we associate with the brand is listed as “MLRs Registered”.
• Formerly registered: only “Formerly MLRs Registered” entries.
• On FCA Warning List: an FCA warning page exists for the exchange's own name or website, and it is not on the register.
• Not on FCA crypto register: none of the above. This is not a finding of wrongdoing.
• Public statement: what the firm said, or was reported to say, about applying under the new regime, leaving the UK, or how it reaches UK users. “Has applied” is recorded only when a firm says so with a date.
• Type and major brand are VASP Tracker's editorial classification. Registered firms we could not classify from public information are shown as “Not classified”.

Matching

Register rows are grouped into a brand only where the legal entity is the brand's UK company (for example CB Payments Ltd → Coinbase; Payward Ltd and Crypto Facilities Ltd → Kraken). Every register row appears in the table, grouped or on its own.

Limits

• The FCA does not publish applicants for FSMA authorisation, so “has applied” depends on firms' own statements.
• The register list is read from its public web page. If a read fails, the previous snapshot is used, and the date shown is the date of that snapshot.
• MLR application counts are applications, not firms.

Corrections

We correct factual errors as soon as they are confirmed. Write to press@vasptracker.com with the page, the passage and the source. Firms can send official documents, such as an FCA decision. Published corrections: none.