First Regulated British Pound Stablecoin Launched
The “poundtoken” is 100% backed by British pound reserves and has the full support of British regulators.
Key Takeaways
- Fintech company Blackfridge is launching “poundtoken,” a pound sterling stablecoin that is 100% backed by British pound reserves.
- Blackfridge, a company located on the Isle of Man, is offering the product with the support of British financial regulators.
- The stablecoin market has been increasing in diversity, with Circle and Tether both looking to issue currencies backed by euros and Mexican pesos.
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Poundtoken, the first fully regulated, fully-collateralized stablecoin pegged to the Great British pound, is now being offered by a company located in the Isle of Man.
GBPT Available on UniSwap
The world of stablecoins is welcoming a new contender today.
Today crypto company Blackfridge launched a British-regulated stablecoin called “poundtoken.” The stablecoin, which bears the ticker GBPT, is 100% backed by reserves in pounds sterling. It is the first regulated British pound stablecoin ever issued.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that aim at retaining parity with a government-issued currency, in most cases the U.S. dollar. Some stablecoin issuers, like MakerDAO, are decentralized protocols hosted on a blockchain; others, such as Circle, are centralized companies. Blackfridge falls under the latter category.
Blackfridge CEO Alan Sun stated that the cryptocurrency market had recently suffered a “difficult” few weeks, with many participants losing funds during Terra’s UST collapse. He assured GBPT would offer “the stability of the British pound, and the reassurance of strict British financial regulations, combined with the speed, transparency, and integrity of the blockchain.”
GBPT was launched on Ethereum but is expected to expand to multiple blockchains. Poundtoken can currently be traded on UniSwap, Gate.io, and Bittrex Global, though the company assures more platforms will soon be offering it.
Blackfridge is regulated and licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority. The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown dependency located in the Irish Sea, between England and Ireland. It is not part of the United Kingdom, nor is it a British Overseas Territory. An auditor, KMPG, has already been appointed to ensure the coin remains 100% backed: it will be issuing proof-of-reserve statements monthly.
Other stablecoin issuers have been expanding their products, with leading providers Circle and Tether looking to respectively launch euro-backed and Mexican peso-backed currencies.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
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