Is this how freedom ends in the UK?
The UK’s latest “crypto AML rules” slash ownership disclosures from 25% to 10%, pulling more people into disclosure regimes and expanding banking surveillance.
These measures are framed as fighting crime. But similar rules in tradfi have existed for years and haven’t stopped fraud or money laundering.
What they do create are honeypots of personal data, risks for law-abiding people, and deeper state oversight. This is about normalising authoritarian tools, not AML or safety.
Decades of KYC and financial surveillance show how control creeps in rule by rule. That same authoritarian logic already governs speech, from the Online Safety Bill to Graham Linehan’s Heathrow detention over tweets.
And now digital IDs are back on the table, linking finance, identity and turning everyday access into a system of control.
Add in programmable money and street surveillance, and you have a panopticon, a 1984 scenario darker than Orwell imagined.
The UK has offically sleepwalked into authoritarianism.
Passle
UK drafts changes to Money Laundering Regulations
The UK Government has shared draft legislation amending the Money Laundering Regulations, including changes to cryptoasset regulation, customer due...
GOV.UK
The draft Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment and Miscellaneous Provision) Regulations 2025 - Policy note
99Bitcoins
New UK Crypto AML Rules Target Ownership, Banking, and Trusts
The UK is updating its crypto AML rules with stricter checks on ownership, banking partners, and trust registration. Feedback open until Sept.
