The Coinbase-backed Stand With Crypto UK group has called on its 286,000 members to lodge formal complaints against UK retail banks over blanket restrictions on crypto transactions, it announced on Wednesday.
The campaign is a protest against nationwide banking rules that block or cap customer transfers to exchanges, including those registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the group said in a press release. According to FCA research, around 8% of UK adults hold cryptoassets.
Stand With Crypto based its campaign on data from the UK Cryptoassets Business Council’s “Locked Out” report from January 2026. The report studied 10 exchanges: Coinbase, Kraken, Uphold, Xapo Bank, Zumo, Wirex, OKX, Luno, Bitpanda and Gemini.
A day after that report was published, a spokesperson for the UK Treasury, the country’s Department for Economic Affairs and Finance, told CoinDesk that government officials expected banks to treat all businesses, including crypto service providers, fairly. “We would not expect these licensed firms to be subject to any account or transaction restrictions from banking service providers,” a spokesperson said.
FCA report reveals UK banks block or delay 40% of all domestic crypto transactions. Over the past 12 months, 80% of these exchanges reported an increase in the number of blocked transfers. One platform reported that banks rejected up to 1 million pounds (over $1 million) of transactions in a single year.
Banking restrictions fall into two categories, Stand With Crypto UK said. Full blocks are used by Chase UK, Starling, TSB, Virgin Money and Metro Bank, which stop all transfers and card payments to crypto exchanges. Strict transfer caps are set by Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Monzo, which impose strict limits on the money users can transfer.
Last year, UK-based trading platform IG also released a damning survey indicating that millions of people were being excluded from crypto simply because of their bank’s anti-crypto stance. “Two in five (40%) UK crypto investors have had a payment blocked or delayed by their bank while trying to purchase digital assets,” according to the IG report.
CFC advocates say these policies apply to everyone, regardless of an individual’s actual risk profile. They also said that many of these same banks are hiring digital asset teams and exploring crypto products behind the scenes, making retail customer blocks anti-competitive.
“People across the UK cannot access a legal asset class because banks have chosen to impose blanket restrictions on an entire sector,” Adriana Ennab, director of Stand With Crypto UK, said in a statement. “Starting today, they are formally telling their banks that these restrictions are unacceptable.”
These blockages go against both local rules and the government’s stated plans to make the UK a global Web3 hub, SWC said. Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, banks are required to execute payments that meet account conditions. In January 2026, the UK Treasury explicitly stated that it did not expect FCA-authorized firms to face trading restrictions from banking providers, adding that firms should be treated fairly.
“The government has set out a vision to make the UK a global hub for digital assets and Web3,” Katie Harries, head of Europe policy at Coinbase, said in a statement. “This vision requires retail participation – where every day people hold and engage with crypto assets. But banks are stifling the crucial on-ramp between fiat (normal) currency and crypto.”
