The UK’s Vested Interest in Ensuring the Growth of Viable and Competitive Sterling Stablecoins

Abstract

Digital assets and blockchain technology have undergone a speedy legitimization drive in 2025 and 2026 driven primarily by the vigorous pro-innovation stance of the second Trump Administration in the United States. Within six months of the beginning of President Trump’s second term in office, federal agencies rapidly dismantled Biden era guidance acting as impediments to the participation of banks, consumers and builders in the digital assets ecosystem and the US passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (“GENIUS Act”) setting up a pro-innovation regulatory framework to nurture the burgeoning market for stablecoins which is currently dominated by US dollar pegged stablecoins. In this new reality, the UK can and must find a way to carve out a leading role for itself and the promotion of sterling pegged stablecoins or risk being practically shut out of the digital assets market, left as a bit part player in a fast-growing global market and not capitalising on a potential source of demand that could marginally reduce the yield on UK government borrowing.