The Financial Conduct Authority opened its crypto authorisation gateway on September 30, the first time UK crypto firms can apply for full permission under the new regime rather than sit on the anti-money-laundering register.

Applications go through the FCA’s Connect system. The window runs to 11:59 p.m. on February 28, 2027. The regime itself starts on October 25, 2027. Firms that want to keep operating in Britain are expected to file inside that window. Authorisation is not automatic.

Dominic Cashman, the FCA’s director of authorisation, said the regime gives consumers protections they have not had and firms a framework to work inside. The standards the press release names are consumer protection, safeguarding, market integrity and financial resilience. Final rules and guidance landed in June. Perimeter guidance, PS26/18, followed on September 16. The legal base is the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026, made in February.

The filing date is the part that decides who stays open. A firm that applies between September 30 and February 28 can keep providing cryptoasset services, including taking new business, if the FCA has not ruled by commencement. That is the savings provision. A firm that files late does not get it. A firm that does not file has to leave the UK market when the regime starts. The FCA says it expects to decide applications submitted in the window before October 25, 2027, and is offering pre-application meetings and webinars. It is not offering legal advice.

This is a different object from the existing money-laundering registration. AML registration let a firm operate under a narrow compliance overlay. The gateway is a FSMA permission: exchanges, custodians and other in-scope businesses need authorisation, or a variation if they are already authorised, for the new cryptoasset activities. The asset can still go to zero. What changes is who is accountable for conduct, custody and market abuse once the firm is inside the perimeter.

Europe is the comparison the industry is already making. MiCA’s transitional cutoff on July 1 left a large share of applicants, including major offshore names, without a licence. The UK window is five months, then a further eight before commencement, and the savings rule is written so a timely application is not a stop-the-business event. That is more orderly than a hard cutoff. It is also a filter. Groups that cannot document safeguarding, capital and governance by February will not be in the October 2027 market.

For UK users the practical change is later, not this week. No new consumer redress appears on September 30. The date that matters is October 25 next year, and only for firms that filed, and only for the activities the permission actually covers.