In April, the United Kingdom’s Economic and Finance Ministry, also known as Her Majesty’s Treasury, announced its intention to put the United Kingdom at the forefront of technology by bringing stablecoins under the country’s payments regulation — a bold move that looks especially intriguing in contrast to the recent shock, caused by TerraUSD’s (UST) depegging.
Later, in May, during the annual Queen’s Speech, Prince Charles informed the Parliament about two bills that will support “the safe adoption of cryptocurrencies” and “create powers to more quickly and easily seize and recover crypto assets.”
Taken together, these initiatives give an impression of the nation’s growing interest in digital assets, which comes as no surprise, given the inevitable competition for innovation with the European Union.
The last few months were busy for crypto in Great Britain. Besides some important precedents being set such as the High Court’s decision to recognize nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as property or the listing of Grayscale’s first European ETF on the London Stock Exchange, we witnessed some major announcements by regulators.
In its announcement on April 4, following a several-month public consultation, the Treasury acknowledged that certain stablecoins could become “a widespread means of payment” for retail customers. It also stated its readiness to “take the necessary legislative steps” to bring stablecoins into a comprehensible regulatory framework.
As the head of tax at Koinly, Tony Dhanjal, explained to Cointelegraph, this announcement should be regarded as huge news or even a game-changer because it will lead to the reclassification of stablecoins in the U.K.:
The intentions voiced by the Treasury weren’t limited solely to
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