UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) defended its approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry in response to criticisms that its measures are "too harsh" and could stifle innovation. FCA authorized department payment and digital asset manager Val Smith emphasized the importance of maintaining strict standards to protect consumers and maintain the integrity of the financial market in an article posted on its website on October 21. "Relaxing our standards and triggering a race to the bottom cannot ensure that people and our markets are protected, or even operate normally," Smith wrote. Innovations that are quickly built on an "unsafe, unregulated, and untrusted basis" are likely to collapse.