First regulated British pound Stablecoin launched
Important takeaways
- Fintech company Blackfridge launches “pound token”, a stable pound sterling coin that is 100% supported by British pound reserves.
- Blackfridge, a company located on the Isle of Man, offers the product with the support of the UK Financial Services Authority.
- The Stablecoin market has grown in diversity, with Circle and Tether both wanting to issue currencies supported by the euro and Mexican pesos.
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Poundtoken, the first fully regulated, fully secured stablecoin linked to the British pound is now offered by a company located on the Isle of Man.
GBPT Available on UniSwap
The Stablecoins world welcomes a new competitor today.
Today crypto company Blackfridge launched a British regulated stablecoin called the “pound token”. Stablecoin, which carries the GBPT ticker, is 100% backed by pounds sterling reserves. It is the first regulated British pound stablecoin ever issued.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that aim to maintain parity with a government-issued currency, in most cases US dollars. Some stablecoin issuers, such as MakerDAO, are decentralized protocols that host a blockchain; others, such as Circle, are centralized companies. Blackfridge falls into the latter category.
Blackfridge CEO Alan Sun stated that the cryptocurrency market had recently had some “difficult” weeks, with many participants losing funds during Terra Terra UST collapse. He assured that the GBPT would offer “the stability of the British pound, and the assurance of strict UK economic rules, combined with the speed, transparency and integrity of the blockchain.”
GBPT was launched on Ethereum, but is expected to expand to more blockchains. The Poundtoken can currently be traded on UniSwap, Gate.io and Bittrex Global, although the company assures that more platforms will soon offer 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 that the coin remains 100% supported: it will issue proof-of-reserve statements on a monthly basis.
Other stablecoin issuers have expanded their products, with leading suppliers Circle and Tether wanting to launch respectively. euro-supported and Mexican peso-supported currencies.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
