Microsoft Now Accept Bitcoin

The Cindicator Analytics team built the survey to measure sentiment among professional forecasters about how Brexit might reshape both crypto markets and the regulatory landscape for digital assets. Analysts point to a hard Brexit scenario in which investors would flee the pound sterling and search for alternative stores of value in cryptocurrencies. In such an environment, companies facing higher costs to move goods across borders would struggle, and that burden could drag down broader markets. In response, investors would choose between safe plays like government bonds and emerging growth markets with profit potential.

Some 18.5 percent of forecasters warn that Brexit could harm cryptocurrency markets in the near term. They cite disorderly exit scenarios where negotiations collapse, potentially dealing severe damage to the UK economy and financial markets. That outcome could trigger stock sell-offs that spread to digital assets as well.

On regulation, 47 percent of analysts believe a post-Brexit UK government would embrace progressive cryptocurrency rules and foster blockchain development. Without EU constraints, Britain could chart its own regulatory course, they contend. Economic pressure from job losses created by Brexit might push policymakers to support emerging technologies as a growth engine for the economy. Only 9 percent expect the UK to take a hostile stance toward crypto.

The regulatory shift could matter less if major players relocate. Analysts flagged what they called "a massive capital exodus" as businesses move away from the country. Coinbase, the US-based crypto exchange, opened an office in Ireland in October 2018 to prepare for that outcome, treating it as part of their Brexit contingency planning.