Tether To Launch A Stable Coin GBPT Pegged To British Pound. Tether, a major cryptocurrency firm, announced on Wednesday that it will launch a “stablecoin” pegged to the British pound next month, as London plans to regulate the rapidly growing type of digital currency.
Named GBPT, the stablecoin will initially be available on the Ethereum blockchain, Tether said today in a statement. This is Tether’s fifth fiat-pegged stablecoin, following USDT, EURT, CNHT, and the recently launched MXNT.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are designed to maintain a consistent value in comparison to traditional currencies or commodities such as gold. They want to avoid the volatility that makes bitcoin and other digital tokens unsuitable for most transactions.
Tether has several fiat-pegged stablecoins, but its USD-pegged stablecoin USDT is the most popular, despite recent significant redemptions due to panic over the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD (UST) and general market downturn.
The Stable Coin Depegging Issue
The value of terraUSD, a stablecoin that used a complex algorithm, collapsed last month, shining a light on the importance of stablecoins in the crypto trading world.
Britain plans to legislate to bring some stablecoins under the oversight of regulators, part of a plan to exploit the potential of crypto and blockchain technology to help consumers make payments more efficiently.
“We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets,” Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement. “We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer.”
Tether has been hit harder by the crypto crash than competitors like Circle’s USDC, and its dollar token briefly lost its peg last month. According to CoinGecko data, total USDT circulation has dropped to $67 billion from a high of more than $83 billion in early May.
The new pound token comes as central banks in Europe and the United Kingdom move forward with CBDCs, a state-issued stablecoin. The Bank of England is still in talks with market participants about launching a digital sterling. If approved, the token would not be available until the second half of this decade, according to the BOE.
Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Tether, stated that the United Kingdom is a key location for the next wave of industry transformation, adding:
The announcement also mentions that HM Treasury announced plans in April 2022 to make the country a global cryptocurrency hub and to incorporate stablecoins into its regulatory framework. The Economic and Finance Ministry of the United Kingdom also intended to amend its regulatory framework to include stablecoins as a form of payment.
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