Over the past several months, Britain has been inching itself closer and closer into the cryptocurrency industry as among its biggest and brightest contenders. In April, Her Majesty's Treasury itself minted its own NFT in a new angle to bridge the country into the digital asset realm, and now the country is expanding via a pound-pegged stablecoin distributed by the likes of Tether.
Some might be a bit reluctant in Britain's newfound efforts with Tether, given the previous history wrought by TerraUSD. The infamous algorithmic stablecoin last threw a wrench into the entire market following an unprecedented depeg, which no sooner saw Luna and other surrounding cryptocurrencies dive to new lows. Tether, for its part, was embroiled in the controversy itself when antsy investors began pulling money from the stablecoin in the ballpark of $7.4 billion.
Tether UK, however, is a different ambition, according to its creators and backers. The UK launch of Tether's new stablecoin will be built on the Ethereum blockchain network and will be akin to its $1-pegged US counterpart, valued at £1. It will be labeled simply as GBPT for now and will aid in the UK government's continued efforts to make Britain a digital asset focal point.
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"We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets," said Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino in a statement. "We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-dominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer."
Tether is already joined the world's largest stablecoin. As of writing, the Tether market cap is $66 billion, according to CoinMarketCap, with a current price point of a little under $1. Despite the whirlwind of events in the crypto markets of late, Tether has remained a key player in the industry. The firm's coin is backed by one-to-one assets within a reserve, allowing the stablecoin to remain stable and thus have a strong underpinning rather. Proof enough of the stability of the Tether crypto is the aforementioned $10 billion in withdrawals made as markets tanked.
Even with markets dwindling, the UK too remains bullish in its efforts to become a force in the crypto sphere. To those in the UK government, it is an opportune time to make an impressionable foothold in the space, made all the more apparent as it already sets in motion plans of a more sophisticated nature in regulating stablecoins via "the forthcoming financial services and markets bill," according to a Treasury spokesperson. It's an absolute must in this era of both TerraUSD and Celsius.
There is no definitive date on when the UK can expect the Tether stablecoin's release, but the press release does note to find more information about the forthcoming digital asset on the Tether website.
