An official from Dubai’s financial watchdog has warned that global regulators need to step up talks with each other to avoid “bad actors” exploiting loopholes in cryptocurrency rules.

Elisabeth Wallace, deputy director of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, said the agency plans to update its rules on cryptocurrencies, effective for the city’s commercial hub in November and possibly later this year.

Wallace said: "A lot of cryptocurrency businesses tend to operate a lot of activities under one umbrella, which is really concerning for us. They are spread all over the world, and as regulators, we need to communicate with each other more in this area because there may be quite a lot of gaps, and we have seen a lot of bad actors trying to exploit these gaps." (Bloomberg)