The new UK Prime Minister is pushing CBDC

• As the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak pushed for the need to have a CBDC to promote innovation in the UK’s economic landscape.
• In the past, Sunak has shown a willingness to make the UK the hub for crypto-asset technology.

On Monday 24 October, Rishi Sunak was appointed leader of the Conservative Party and the next Prime Minister of Great Britain. This happened after former Prime Minister Lizz Truss resigned last week after only seven weeks in office.

The appointment of Rishi Sunak brings great cheer to the crypto community as the newly appointed UK Prime Minister is known for his pro-crypto stance in the past. Sunak served as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer as part of the Boris Johnson government.

Under the UK’s presidency of the G7, the economic group launched a set of public guidelines for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). As we know, CBDCs are digital versions of money of the respective countries operating on a blockchain platform.

According to Sunak’s suggestion plan to have a CBDC, it will be issued directly by the Bank of England (BoE). In the past, the newly elected British Prime Minister has praised CBDCs for being safe, secure and energy efficient. Sunak believes that CBDCs will help reshape the UK economy and financial systems. In one of his recent tweets, Rishi Sunak said that his first job as the UK Prime Minister would be to fix the country’s ailing economy. He noted:

Britain is a great country, but we are facing a deep economic crisis. That is why I am running for leader of the Conservative Party and your next prime minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our party and deliver for our country.

As a result, CBDC may receive serious attention under Sunak’s administration. Earlier this year, he also announced a joint working group between the Treasury and the Bank of England (BoE) to look at a potential CBDC.

Making the UK the hub for crypto-asset technology

As a former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak had also proposed a few measures to improve the UK’s crypto landscape. He also showed a willingness to attract more investment to the UK’s crypto industry.

Thus, Sunak spoke of a “financial market infrastructure sandbox” that encourages innovation in the crypto sector. He said:

It is my ambition to make the UK a global hub for crypto-asset technology, and the measures we have outlined today will help ensure that firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country. We want to see the businesses of tomorrow – and the jobs they create – here in the UK, and by regulating effectively we can give them the confidence they need to think and invest long term.

Moreover, Sunak also talked about recognizing stablecoins as a valid payment method. But what about public cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin? Interestingly, Sunak talked about supporting a basket of digital assets and not just Bitcoin in one of his interviews.

Britain’s new Prime Minister prefers Bored Apes to CryptoPunks and prefers a basket of different coins (dubs in shitcoins?)

(Clip from leader’s race a couple of months ago) pic.twitter.com/3FwMgAPA0s

— db (@tier10k) 24 October 2022