The Bank of England has called for “enhanced” regulations of crypto to address potential risk to the country’s financial stability amid the market capitalization dropping more than $2 billion.

In the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee "Financial Stability Report — July 2022," the central bank said factors including the growth of the crypto market and climate change did not pose an “immediate threat” to the United Kingdom’s financial system but had the potential to do so in the future. The committee noted that recent events in the space including extreme price volatility among cryptocurrencies, "liquidity mismatches,” weakening investor confidence in stablecoins and “leveraged positions being unwound” could threaten financial stability if left unchecked.

“Unless addressed, systemic risks would emerge if cryptoasset activity, and its interconnectedness with the wider financial system, continued to develop,” said the BoE report. “This underscores the need for enhanced regulatory and law enforcement frameworks to address developments in these markets and activities.”

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According to the report, a “number of vulnerabilities” within the crypto space were similar to those that had previously been a part of instances of instability in traditional finance, leading to the market capitalization dropping from roughly $3 trillion in 2021 to less than $900 billion at the time of publication. Since its last report in December 2021, the committee said it had supported the Financial Stability Board coordinating its approach to “unbacked crypto-assets”