The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published consultation paper GC26/7 on 21 October with guidance on decentralised finance (DeFi). The guidance introduces no new rules but explains how existing requirements on operational resilience, financial crime systems and the money laundering regulations apply to DeFi activities. It covers topics such as oracles, cross-chain bridges, admin keys, cross-border flows and privacy tools. Comments are due by 18 November 2026 and final guidance is expected in the first quarter of 2027.

What it means: The FCA is doing something most supervisors have avoided: rather than debating whether DeFi can be regulated, it explains how existing rules apply to its individual functions. The approach focuses on points where someone is in control, such as admin keys or price data providers, and on cases where decentralisation is more a label than a reality. In the EU, MiCA explicitly left fully decentralised DeFi out of scope, while the Commission has committed to revisit the topic. The UK text will be a reference point for that debate. For Greek crypto-asset service providers and fintechs that give access to DeFi protocols through their apps, the paper is a useful guide to what European authorities will sooner or later ask: who controls the keys, how prices are verified, what happens if a bridge is breached and how flows are screened for money laundering. The EU anti-money laundering regulation, applying from 2027, and the new AMLA authority will also cover much of this ground. Firms active in the UK as well can respond to the consultation until mid-November.

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