3 hours ago
Coinciding with the FCA’s announcement of its stablecoin trial, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong criticized the U.K.’s regulatory process, saying it puts the region's planetary crypto enactment astatine risk.
Feb 25, 2026, 5:48 p.m.
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) picked Revolut, Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, and VVTX to trial stablecoin issuance successful its Regulatory Sandbox arsenic regulators determination toward a afloat rulebook.
The FCA said the cohort volition proceedings stablecoin products successful real-world conditions, with safeguards successful place. The regulator plans to absorption connected issuance and reappraisal usage cases that see payments, wholesale colony and crypto trading. Testing begins successful the archetypal 4th of 2026, and the FCA said the results volition provender into last stablecoin rules aboriginal successful 2026.
“We are supporting U.K. stablecoin issuers to guarantee they tin beryllium trusted for payments, colony and trading,” said Matthew Long, manager of payments and integer assets astatine the FCA. “It volition payment consumers and fiscal transactions and assistance to present the FCA's strategy and the Government's National Payments Vision.”
Industry pushes back
However, manufacture leaders person pushed backmost against the Bank of England’s (BoE) stablecoin caps, saying they bounds innovation and forestall the U.K. from becoming the planetary hub it aims to be.
The BoE published a insubstantial connected Nov. 10, 2025, announcing stablecoin caps of betwixt £5,000 and £20,000 for individuals and £1 cardinal to £10 cardinal for businesses. Armstrong asked U.K. users to motion a petition to Parliament for these caps to beryllium reconsidered. The petition has 81,909 of the 100,000 required signatures.
“Stablecoin rules successful the U.K. are being finalized, and are astatine hazard of preventing the U.K. from being globally competitory successful the integer economy,” Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder astatine Coinbase, wrote connected X connected Tuesday. He cited a Bank of England proposal to headdress stablecoin holdings.
The authorities has repeatedly pledged to presumption London arsenic a halfway for planetary integer plus activity. However, broad authorities governing stablecoins and wider crypto enactment is expected to beryllium approved by parliament lone later this year and won't travel into unit until 2027.
The regulatory timeline contradicts U.K.’s extremity of remaining globally competitory wrong the industry, Andrew MacKenzie, CEO of sterling stablecoin developer Agant, told CoinDesk successful a caller interrogation astatine Consensus Hong Kong. He said the instauration of rules is not moving accelerated capable to enactment the aspirations of the planetary crypto hub.
"The U.K. has a agelong past of being a fiscal hub," said Armstrong. "Embracing and encouraging innovation, particularly erstwhile different countries are moving accelerated here, is important for maintaining that.”
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Millions successful crypto funded tools to exploit U.S. software, Treasury says successful caller sanctions
An Australian nationalist was said to merchantability cyber tools designed for the U.S. authorities and its allies to a Russian institution known arsenic Operation Zero.
What to know:
- The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Russian institution and the individuals associated with it for dealing successful stolen exertion purchased with millions successful cryptocurrency.
- The exertion was designed by a defence contractor for usage by the U.S. government, and 1 of the contractor's employees was said to person stolen it and sold it to Operation Zero, the people of the caller sanctions.
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