Owning crypto in the UK isn't illegal, however trading it is. Do people find ways around the latter? Yeah, however as far as the FCA and many banks are concerned, rightly or wrongly, crypto = bad.
Quite a few people have reported issues with their bank accounts being frozen etc if they transfer money from said accounts to crypto exchanges. Again there are ways to circumvent this to ensure an obvious fiat bank account > crypto exchange transfer isn't required. However I personally wouldn't take the risk as my fiat accounts are too important to me.
I'm not 100% pro or anti crypto. There is a LOT of misinformation about it and, if you follow the markets even a little bit, there is growing interest from established investors and organisations. I was going to invest/gamble £1k in BTC a few years ago as a purely speculative punt ... wish I had now!
To those citing things like Tulipmania in the 17th century and saying crypto 'is the same' don't really have a clue what they're talking about. There's a lot more to it than BTC. Also, regardless of how legitimate the whole thing is or isn't, if you ride the proverbial wave just right, you could make a lot of £££. Equally you could lose a lot of £££, that's the world of investing or if you prefer, gambling.
FCA bans the sale of crypto-derivatives to retail consumers | FCA
