If modern financial regulation was just about rhetoric and symbolic gestures, the City could hardly fault the current government.

As a statement of its intent to turn the UK into a “global hub” for the crypto industry, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has commissioned the Royal Mint to issue a non-fungible token. In his Twitter announcement, Sunak did not reveal the nature of the Royal Mint’s digital collectible, but the point is the government wants to show the UK is at the cutting edge of the new world.