UK Selects Firms for Stablecoin Regulatory Sandbox, Including Revolut

In brief

• The Financial Conduct Authority has selected four firms for a stablecoin regulatory sandbox.
• The program will help shape final UK stablecoin rules due later this year.
• The sandbox will let the companies test stablecoin issuance in real-world conditions without regulatory penalties.

The UK’s top financial regulator announced Wednesday that it has selected four crypto firms to participate in a risk-free regulatory sandbox that will inform how the agency shapes stablecoin rules later this year. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chose neobank startup Revolut to participate in the sandbox, along with three other companies: Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, and VVTX. All of the companies have existing stablecoin-related projects. Decrypt reported last year that Revolut is mulling launching its own stablecoin, though the company has not yet made any announcements on the subject. Users on Myriad Markets—a prediction market operated by Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan—currently estimate that odds stand at 34% that Revolut will announce such a token before July. 

The FCA’s stablecoin sandbox will allow the company, along with the three others, to trial stablecoin-related products in real-world conditions without fear of regulatory repercussions. The testing will focus primarily on stablecoin issuance, the FCA said. The UK is currently developing its own rules regarding stablecoins, which are set to be finalized later this year. The results of the stablecoin sandbox program will directly impact the shape of those rules. “The four selected firms’ proposals represent a range of stablecoin use cases, including payments, wholesale settlement and crypto trading,” the FCA said Wednesday. “Each firm will receive feedback from FCA specialists while helping to shape the UK’s regulatory approach.” The companies were chosen from a pool of 20 applications, the FCA noted.

The United States passed its own stablecoin regulatory regime, the GENIUS Act, last summer. UK banking leaders have emphasized the importance, in recent months, of not falling behind America’s pace of establishing crypto regulations. In September, both countries announced a joint crypto regulatory task force, chaired by officials from both the U.S. Treasury Department and His Majesty’s Treasury. The aim of the task force is to increase links between the American and British capital markets and reduce barriers between both nation’s crypto sectors. The group, dubbed the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future, is expected to release a report on its findings this summer.