Crypto regulation has well and truly moved out of the margins in the UK.
On May 18th, Broadgate's Annabel Lovell attended the London Blockchain Conference’s House of Lords Summit, an event that brought together industry leaders, former regulators, legal experts and digital asset specialists to examine how the UK should approach crypto regulation, competition and market development.
Digital assets have spent much of the last decade sitting between promise and scepticism, and it's a position that's becoming harder to sustain. The sector is now part of the wider financial services conversation, and the regulatory questions have become more direct.
The Crypto Debate
How should the UK protect consumers without closing down legitimate market activity? How quickly should new rules move? Who should shape them? What does competition look like when the underlying technology, risk profile and investor base keep changing?
The summit’s Oxford-style debate format gave those questions room to breathe. It also made the discussion harder to flatten into a single conclusion.
Regulation in digital assets is often discussed as a choice between speed and caution. The debate showed a more useful tension. The UK needs clarity, but clarity has to be built from a proper understanding of how the market works. Rules that arrive too late create uncertainty. Rules built too far from the market create a different kind of risk.
The strongest feature of the event was the range of people in the room. Industry voices brought commercial urgency. Former regulators brought institutional memory. Legal specialists brought precision to where responsibility, liability and enforcement may sit next.
Crypto policy can become narrow when the conversation stays inside one group. A technical discussion can miss the consumer question. A legal discussion can miss the commercial reality. A market discussion can understate the need for trust.
The Hiring Implications
For Broadgate, the event reflected a hiring market that is becoming more mature. Broadgate’s dedicated Crypto and Digital Assets Hiring Division works with organisations building teams across this space, and the talent brief is changing.
Technical fluency still matters, as does regulatory judgement and the ability to operate between legal, compliance, product and commercial teams.
The next phase of digital assets will depend on people who can work across those boundaries. Firms need specialists who understand the technology, but also the obligations that come with institutional adoption.
The House of Lords Summit didn’t reduce the debate to easy answers. It showed why these discussions now need more structure, more openness and more cross-market input.
If you’re building teams across crypto, digital assets or regulatory change, speak to Annabel Lovell to learn more about what Broadgate is seeing in the UK market. Alternatively, let us know what you're hoping to achieve from your hiring strategy by filling out this form, and we'll connect you with the right consultant.