The King was booed by protesters as he left parliament after outlining Rishi Sunak’s agenda for the year ahead.
Tougher sentences for the country’s most serious offenders and a crackdown on grooming took centre stage in the first King’s Speech in decades.
The monarchstruck a personal note when he began his speech – the first by a king in more than 70 years – by acknowledging the “legacy of service and devotion to this country” shown by his “beloved mother, the late Queen”.
Reading out Prime Minister Sunak’s agenda for the upcoming year, the King said the Sentencing Bill would be brought forward to “increase the confidence of victims”.
Further measures would also be introduced to give police more powers to “prevent new and complex crimes” and child sexual abuse, he added.
Image: The King and Queen on their way to parliament
Image: The chamber of the House of Lords fills up ahead of the King’s Speech
Despite the emphasis on crime, there was no mention of the recent pro-Palestinian protests that have been taking place across the UK, and which Ms Braverman has described as “hate marches”.
Image: The King and Queen travel past anti-monarchy protesters
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‘Not My King!’ protest
At 1,223 words, the King’s Speech was the longest by a monarch at a State Opening of Parliament since 2005.
It began when the King noted that the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine had created “significant long-term challenges for the United Kingdom”.
He said Mr Sunak’s government was focused on “increasing economic growth and safeguarding the health and security of the British people for generations to come”.
The King repeated the prime minister’s key pledge to bring down inflation, which currently stands at 6.7%, and said the government would support the Bank of England “in that goal” by taking “responsible decisions on spending and borrowing”.
Previously announced ambitions to create a “smoke-free generation”were raised, as the monarch said the government would restrict the sale of tobacco so that children currently aged 14 or younger can never be sold cigarettes.
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King’s Speech: In full
The King – a lifelong environmental campaigner – also confirmed Mr Sunak’s plans to grant new oil and gas licences “helping the country to transition to net zero by 2050 without adding undue burdens on households” in the Offshore Petroleum and Licensing Bill.
Elsewhere, he reaffirmed the prime minister’s plans to introduce an Advanced British Standard, a “new Baccalaureate-style qualification”for 16 to 19-year-olds that will combine and replace A-Levels and T-Levels, while also carrying out a crackdown on “poor quality” university degrees in favour of more young people taking high quality apprenticeships.
Turning to housing, the government will bring forward the Leasehold and Freehold Bill to make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to purchase their freehold and, it is hoped, tackle the issue of punitive service charges.
The long-awaited Renters Reform Bill, under which no-fault evictions are set to be banned, is designed to increase security for renters – but it has come under criticism after Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said he would not enact the policy until courts have been reformed.
Concluding the speech, the King said: “My government will, in all respects, seek to make long-term decisions in the interests of future generations.
“My ministers will address inflation and the drivers of low growth over demands for greater spending or borrowing.
“My ministers will put the security of communities and the nation ahead of the rights of those who endanger it.
“By taking these long-term decisions, my government will change this country and build a better future.”
The US Treasury Department sanctioned eight cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to Russian crypto exchange Garantex and the Houthis.
The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight crypto addresses that data from blockchain forensic firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs had linked to the organizations. Two are deposit addresses at major crypto platforms, while the other six are privately controlled.
Visualization of transaction flow related to OFAC sanctions. Source: Chainalysis
The addresses in question reportedly moved nearly $1 billion worth of funds linked to sanctioned entities. Most of the transactions funded Houthi operations in Yemen and the Red Sea region.
Slava Demchuk, a crypto-focused money laundering specialist and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime consultant told Cointelegraph that “the inclusion of Houthi-linked wallets reflects a broader recognition of crypto’s role in geopolitical conflicts and terrorism financing.” He added:
“The implications are far-reaching — compliance frameworks must adapt swiftly, attribution efforts will intensify, and decentralized platforms may face increased scrutiny.“
Demchuk highlighted that the situation reshapes the regulatory landscape. According to him, crypto “is now firmly within the scope of international security.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are a Yemeni political and armed movement that emerged from the Zaidi Shia community. Originating as a revivalist and reformist group, they later became a major force in Yemen’s ongoing conflict.
In recent years, the Houthis have engaged in attacks against both military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea with missiles and drones. In January, US President Donald Trump designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.
The announcement noted that “the Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade.” The group was recently struck by a US bombing campaign.
Garantex is a Russian crypto exchange that was sanctioned and shut down in early March after purportedly helping money-laundering efforts. At the time, Tether — the leading stablecoin operator and issuer of USDt — froze $27 million in USDt on the platform, forcing it to halt operations.
In mid-March, officials with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder was based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Lawmakers in the US states of Minnesota and Alabama filed companion bills to identical existing bills that if passed into law, would allow each state to buy Bitcoin.
The Minnesota Bitcoin Act, or HF 2946, was introduced to the state’s House by Republican Representative Bernie Perryman on April 1, following an identical bill introduced on March 17 by GOP state Senator Jeremy Miller.
Meanwhile, on the same day in Alabama, Republican state Senator Will Barfoot introduced Senate Bill 283, while a bi-partisan group of representatives led by Republican Mike Shaw filed the identical House Bill 482, which allows for the state to invest in crypto, but essentially limits it to Bitcoin (BTC).
Twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly name Bitcoin
Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act would allow the state’s investment board to invest state assets in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and permit state employees to add crypto to retirement accounts.
It would also exempt crypto gains from state income taxes and give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin.
The twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly identify Bitcoin, but would limit the state’s crypto investment into assets that have a minimum market value of $750 billion, a criterion that only Bitcoin currently meets.
26 Bitcoin reserve bills now introduced in the US
Introducing identical bills is not uncommon in the US and is typically done to speed up the bicameral legislative process so laws can pass more quickly.
Bills to create a Bitcoin reserve have been introduced in 26 US states, with Arizona currently the closest to passing a law to make one, according to data from the bill tracking website Bitcoin Laws.
Arizona currently leads in the US state Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws
Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to introduce a Bitcoin reserve bill, in November 2024. However, the initiative was reportedly eventually rejected, with similar bills also killed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming are the five states thathave rejected Bitcoin reserve initiatives. Source: Bitcoin Laws
According to a March 3 report by Barron’s, “red states” like Montana have faced setbacks to the Bitcoin reserve initiatives amid political confrontations between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.
The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.
The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.
During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.
She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.
Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress
Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.
The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.
Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.
Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”
Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.