Private sector investment needed for HS2 to reach Euston station
The embattled highspeed rail project, HS2, will not reach its London terminus without private sector funding, Sky News understands.
Without substantial corporate investment there is no guarantee of the line ending in Euston – instead it would end at Old Oak Common in west London.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reallocated the public sector budget for a new extension to the station and a tunnel leading to it on transport links in other parts of the country.
In a speech scrapping the Manchester leg of the line, Sunak pledged investment for other areas of the North, including a Midlands Rail Hub to connect 50 stations and the Network North project to join up northern cities by rail.
Euston and its surrounds are already in the process of being redeveloped to make way for the line and for a new Euston station.
But HS2 work at Euston was paused earlier this year due to ballooning costs. Estimates grew to £4.8bn compared with an initial, 2019 projected spend of £2.6bn.
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PM’s speech: three key takeaways.
A new development company, separate from HS2 Ltd, will be appointed to manage the delivery of the Euston project, the Department for Transport said.
“There is already support and interest from the private sector,” a government spokesperson said.
“Ministers have had discussions with key partners since the announcement and the transport secretary will be meeting with the Euston Partnership in the coming weeks.”
Read more:
HS2: What’s next for transport in the north?
The HS2 revelation could not be more disruptive for PM
Extending HS2 to Euston involves building 4.5 miles of underground tunnel from Old Oak Common and a six-platform station next to the existing Euston station. Initial plans were to build 11 platforms.
The government has again showed its support for the original plans.
Mr Sunak said the line from Birmingham to Euston will be completed, in his Conservative Party conference speech on Wednesday, and the government’s new plan for the central London station, including taking private investment, will generate “£6.5bn of savings”.
Officials at the Department for Transport believe the capacity of Old Oak Common as an HS2 start and end point can facilitate eight trains per hour, the same number as planned for Euston.
There are concerns, however, at the lack of options for onward journeys from Old Oak Common. Euston is connected to national rail and multiple tube lines.
Government modelling also showed two-thirds of people would prefer to travel to or from Euston.
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase’s decision to cut ties with the CEO of Bitcoin payments company Strike is reigniting concerns about a renewed wave of US “debanking,” an issue that haunted the crypto industry during the 2023 banking turmoil.
Jack Mallers, CEO of the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network payments company Strike, said Sunday on X that JPMorgan closed his personal accounts without explanation.
“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank,” Mallers wrote. “Every time I asked them why, they said the same thing: We aren’t allowed to tell you.”
Cointelegraph has contacted JPMorgan Chase for comment.
The decision has stirred fears of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a term critics use to describe alleged government pressure on banks to sever relationships with crypto companies.
“Operation Chokepoint 2.0 regrettably lives on,” said US Senator Cynthia Lummis in a Monday X post. Actions like JP Morgan’s “undermine the confidence in traditional banking” while sending the digital asset industry overseas, she said, adding:
“It’s past time we put Operation Chokepoint 2.0 to rest to make America the digital asset capital of the world.”
Other crypto founders, including Caitlin Long of Custodia Bank, said the debanking efforts targeting crypto may persist until January 2026, pending the appointment of a new Federal Reserve governor.
Related: Fed mulls ‘skinny’ payment accounts to open rails for fintech, crypto companies
“Trump won’t have the ability to appoint a new Fed governor until January. So, therefore, you can see the breadcrumbs leading up to a potentially big fight,” Long said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show on March 21.
Long’s Custodia Bank was repeatedly targeted by US debanking efforts, which cost the company months of work and “a couple of million dollars,” she said.
The collapse of crypto-friendly banks in early 2023 sparked the first allegations of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, during which at least 30 technology and cryptocurrency founders were reportedly denied access to banking services under the administration of former President Joe Biden.
In August 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order related to debanking, aiming to prevent banks from cutting off services to politically unfavorable industries, including the cryptocurrency sector.
Related: $1.9B exodus and flicker of hope hits crypto investment funds: CoinShares
Lummis accuses FDIC of destroying records
Debanking concerns took another turn in January, when Lummis’s office was contacted by an anonymous whistleblower, alleging that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was “destroying material” related to Operation Chokepoint 2.0.
“The FDIC’s alleged efforts to destroy and conceal materials from the U.S. Senate related to Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is not only unacceptable, it is illegal,” said Lummis in a letter published on Jan. 16, threatening “swift criminal referrals” if the wrongdoing was uncovered.
Traditional financial institutions have long criticized crypto firms for enabling illicit finance. But US banks have themselves paid more than $200 billion in fines over the past two decades for compliance failures, according to data compiled by Better Markets and the Financial Times.
Bank of America reportedly accounted for about $82.9 billion of those penalties, while JPMorgan Chase paid more than $40 billion.
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A new financial law in the United Arab Emirates is set to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) and broader Web3 into regulatory parameters, signaling an important shift for the industry.
The UAE’s new central bank law, Federal Decree Law No. 6 of 2025, introduces “one of the most consequential regulatory shifts” for the crypto industry in the region, Irina Heaver, a local crypto lawyer and founder of NeosLegal, told Cointelegraph.
“It brings protocols, DeFi platforms, middleware, and even infrastructure providers into scope if they enable activities such as payments, exchange, lending, custody, or investment services,” Heaver said.
According to the lawyer, industry projects building or operating in the UAE should treat this as a pivotal regulatory milestone and align their systems before the September 2026 transition deadline.
“We’re just code” is no longer a defence
Issued in the Official Gazette and legally effective since Sept. 16, 2025, the UAE’s Federal Decree Law No. 6 is a central bank law that regulates financial institutions, insurance business as well as digital asset-related activities.
Its key provisions, Article 61 and Article 62, provide a list of activities that require a license from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), including crypto payments and digital stored value.
“Article 62 states that any person who carries on, offers, issues, or facilitates a licensed financial activity ‘through any means, medium, or technology’ falls under the regulatory perimeter of the CBUAE,” Heaver said.
In practice, this means DeFi projects can no longer avoid regulation by claiming they are “just code,” the lawyer said, adding that the argument of “decentralization” does not exempt a protocol from compliance.
Protocols that support stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), decentralized exchange (DEX) functions, bridges, or liquidity routing “may require a license,” Heaver said. The enforcement is already active, she added, with penalties for unlicensed activity including fines of up to 1 billion dirhams ($272.3 million) and potential criminal sanctions.
The law does not ban self-custody
As the UAE’s new central bank law is directly related to providing “stored value services,” the legislation is likely to affect cryptocurrency wallet providers, Kokila Alagh, founder and managing partner of Karm Legal Consultants, told Cointelegraph.
According to Alagh, there has been a “fair bit of confusion” around whether the law affects self-custody, or non-custodial wallets, which are designed to enable users to store their assets independently from any third party.
Related: Arthur Hayes tells Zcash holders to withdraw from CEXs and ‘shield’ assets
Although some industry observers like Trading Strategy’s Mikko Ohtamaa have suggested that the law translates to the “de facto ban” of crypto and self-custodial wallet apps in the UAE, Alagh and Heaver said that’s not the case.
“The law does not ban self-custody, nor does it restrict individuals from using their own wallets,” Alagh said, adding that it “simply expands” the regulatory perimeter for companies.
“If a wallet provider enables payments, transfers, or other regulated financial services for UAE users, licensing requirements may apply,” she noted.
Alagh mentioned that Karm Legal has received a significant number of queries regarding the issue, adding:
“Further clarification from the Central Bank is expected as the law moves through implementation, but for now, individuals remain unaffected while companies should assess whether their activities fall within regulated scope.”
Ironically, Ohtamaa’s post specifically criticized UAE lawyers, arguing that their business is “free of interest in the UAE.”
Related: UAE’s ‘digital dirham’ CBDC pilot completes first transaction
“For independent law firms, anything that makes the UAE less attractive for crypto is a loss of income, and these lawyers are happy to obfuscate facts and legal texts just to secure their yearly bonuses,” Ohtamaa argued.
Karm Legal’s Alagh told Cointelegraph that the firm is actively following up with CBUAE regarding the issue, but there is no set date for the authority to provide a clarification.
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The SEC has just issued its second “no-action letter” toward a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) crypto project in recent months, giving its native token “regulatory cover” from enforcement.
The no-action letter was sent to the Solana DePIN project Fuse, which issues a network token, FUSE, as a reward to those actively maintaining the network.
Fuse initially submitted a letter to the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance on Nov. 19, asking for official confirmation that it would not recommend the SEC take enforcement action if the project continues to offer and sell FUSE tokens.
Fuse also outlined in its letter that FUSE is designed for network utility and consumptive purposes, not for speculation. They can only be redeemed for an average market price via third parties.
“Based on the facts presented, the Division will not recommend enforcement action to the Commission if, in reliance on your opinion as counsel, Fuse offers and sells the Tokens in the manner and under the circumstances described in your letter,” the Division of Corporation Finance’s deputy chief counsel, Jonathan Ingram, wrote on Monday.
The latest SEC no-action letter comes just a few months after the SEC issued a similar “highly coveted” letter to Double Zero, which was seen as a result of a new, more crypto-friendly leadership at the SEC.
At the time, DoubleZero co-founder Austin Federa said such letters are common in TradFi but are “very rare” in the crypto space.
“It was a months long process, but we found the SEC to be quite receptive, we found them to be quite professional, quite diligent, there was no crypto animosity.”
The SEC was put under new leadership in April, after Paul Atkins was sworn in as the 34th chairman, and the agency has since been seen taking a more balanced approach to crypto. As part of the leadership, crypto-friendly Hester Peirce also heads up the agency’s crypto task force.
SEC no-action letters are a form of regulatory clarity
Adding to the discussion on X, Rebecca Rettig, a legal representative of Solana MEV infrastructure platform Jito Labs, said that no-action letters are sought after by many crypto projects.
“Why do crypto teams want them? ‘Regulatory clarity.’ If you’re planning to issue a token, a NAL provides reasonable assurance you won’t face immediate enforcement for violations of securities laws. It’s a kind of ‘regulatory cover,’” she wrote.
SEC giving a pass to Fuse wasn’t unexpected: Crypto lawyer
The no-action letter doesn’t necessarily set any new precedents, however.
Commenting on the subject via X on Monday, Consensys lawyer Bill Hughes said this was “an easy case,” given the nature of Fuse’s token.
“The take away is that there is not a lawyer in crypto that would have thought this token was a security. And maybe not even any lawyer who is merely familiar with Howey,” Hughes said.
Crypto founders praise SEC’s new leadership
After an era in which many US crypto founders, businesses and projects said they felt hostility from the SEC under former chair Gary Gensler, the latest interaction with Fuse indicates the agency has dramatically shifted its approach.
Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December
The same month that Double Zero secured its no-action letter, the SEC also issued a similar no-action letter for crypto-custodians that don’t qualify as banks.
While they still have to meet strict conditions, the no-action letter provides clear guidelines for acceptable ways for these types of firms to operate and deal with crypto, something which the industry has been begging for over the past few years.
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