FCA warns UK citizens to avoid Solana-based memecoin

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning about the Solana-based “Retardio” project, citing concerns over unauthorized financial promotions and activities targeting UK consumers.

On Dec. 16, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) posted a warning against the Retardio project, saying that the token may be providing or promoting financial services without the regulator’s permission. 

The watchdog reminded consumers to only deal with FCA-approved firms to ensure adequate protection. 

The Retardio project features a Solana-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection that has reportedly achieved $31 million in lifetime sales, according to CryptoSlam. Its associated memecoin, trading under the ticker “Retardio,” is valued at around $0.08 with a market capitalization of approximately $87 million, as per Dexscreener.

Retardio project claps back at the FCA

According to the FCA, UK-based users who deal with the Retardio project will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which settles complaints between consumers and financial services businesses. 

The regulator also noted that consumers would not be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), a service that protects consumers when financial firms go out of business. “This means it’s unlikely you’d get your money back if the firm goes out of business,” the FCA wrote. 

The FCA also urged citizens to only deal with authorized firms. The regulator said that authorized firms give greater protection to consumers when things go wrong. The financial services regulator also said that users can check their registry to ensure that the company they are dealing with is authorized to conduct services in the UK. 

The government agency also told consumers to report unauthorized firms by contacting their official channels. 

'Retardio' has issued a warning against the UK’s financial regulator. pic.twitter.com/cba5WkKnto

The memecoin and NFT project humorously responded to the FCA, saying it had “issued a warning against the UK’s financial regulator.” The response implies that UK-based users are now prohibited from using their services. 

Related: FCA releases discussion paper on crypto market transparency, abuse

Memecoins represent the value of attention

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu discussed how memecoins capture the value of user attention, unlike traditional metrics on social platforms. The executive said that while attention on social platforms does not transparently show the value of user-generated content (UGC), memecoins work differently. 

Siu said that in Web3, UGC culture is embedded into memecoins, with their market capitalization reflecting the value of the attention they gained. “If attention was a token, that’s basically what memecoins represent. And so I think of it as correlated between them,” he said. 

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