Stand With Crypto UK launches campaign against British banks blocking exchange transfers

Stand With Crypto UK is telling its 286,000 members to challenge British banks that restrict transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges. For high-risk PSPs and exchanges, the point is simple: if banks are applying blanket blocks to FCA-registered venues, the friction is not just customer pain — it is payment flow getting throttled at the bank layer.

1. The campaign is built around a report from the UK Cryptoassets Business Council, which says 40% of crypto transactions are blocked or restricted by UK banks. The group says many of those restrictions hit transfers to exchanges registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, even when there is no customer-specific risk issue in play.
2. One exchange reported nearly 1 billion British pounds in declined transactions over a one-year period because of bank-side rejections. The same report says 80% of surveyed platforms saw an increase in blocked or restricted transfers, which is exactly the kind of pattern that turns “we bank compliant crypto” into “we can’t settle enough of it.”
3. Stand With Crypto says members can use a tool on its website to generate complaints and challenge transfer restrictions, with bank responses intended to shape the next steps of the campaign. The group’s line — “Your money. Your choice.” — is doing the usual advocacy work, but the operational issue underneath it is whether banks are willing to separate regulated crypto activity from wholesale de-risking.
4. Mark Fairless, CEO of UK clearing bank ClearBank, told Cointelegraph that banks should take a risk-based approach to crypto-related payments instead of imposing broad restrictions across the sector. “Interventions should be targeted and proportionate, as broad blocks risk undermining competition and the ability of regulated firms to operate effectively in the UK,” Fairless said.
5. The campaign lands while UK policymakers are still working on a stablecoin framework. In May, a House of Lords committee examined proposed stablecoin regulations, asking about bank-run risks, anti-money laundering controls and the effect of stablecoins on traditional banking. Later that month, the Bank of England said it was reconsidering proposed caps on stablecoin holdings and reserve requirements as it reviewed pound-denominated stablecoin rules. In June, the House of Lords committee said certain reserve and holding requirements could limit the viability of pound-denominated tokens.

For PSPs, acquirers, and bank partners, the useful read is not the advocacy slogan but the operating signal: UK banks are still drawing hard lines around crypto transfers even where the destination is an FCA-registered exchange. That leaves payment routing, merchant onboarding, and bank relationship management as the real battleground.