According to Protos, according to a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been processing crypto applications for the equivalent of 25 years. The Financial Times reports that the FOI filed by law firm Reed Smith shows that the FCA takes an average of 459 days to evaluate crypto applications. From May 2023 to April 2024, the number of applications filed dropped to 29, a significant decrease from 42 and 59 in the previous two years. Quarter 1 in 2024 only submitted seven applications. The report shows that the number of crypto companies registered with the FCA has dropped by 51% in the past three years, with a total of 186 companies withdrawing their applications to financial regulators. "