Tether will launch a pound-pegged stablecoin

Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, revealed on Wednesday that it plans to establish a new stable digital currency linked 1:1 to the British Pound Sterling. The company said that the new stablecoin, codenamed GBPT, will be available early next month.

According to the official statement, GBPT will be developed by the same team that created USD, the world’s biggest stablecoin with a market valuation of more than $68 billion.

The new coin will be launched on the Ethereum network, as well as other unnamed blockchains, to promote quick, inexpensive, and faster asset transactions.

Tether’s chief technical officer, Paolo Ardoino, commented on the news, saying that the stablecoin issuer is willing to cooperate with U.K. financial watchdogs in order to accomplish its aims.

“We think that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and greater cryptocurrency deployment in financial markets. We intend to assist lead this innovation by giving cryptocurrency users all around the globe access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the biggest stablecoin issuer,” Ardoino stated.

Tether also said that the GBPT will be released to the market alongside its existing fiat-pegged goods. These products include the USD tied to the US dollar, the EUR linked to the euro, and the newly announced MXN tethered to the value of the Mexican peso.

Stablecoins were initially presented in 2014 to mitigate cryptocurrency volatility, with their values connected to reserve assets such as gold and fiat currencies.

These assets are built differently but serve a similar goal, and they have considerably increased the acceptance of the crypto sector by allowing consumers to simply convert their digital currency to stables in order to protect their value. The stablecoin market now accounts for more than 15% of the overall global crypto market capitalization.

In the meanwhile, Japan intends to legalize stablecoins as digital currency next year. The new regulation, however, will only apply to stablecoins issued by licensed banks, money transfer agencies, and trust firms.

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