Bank of England to Accept Stablecoin Applications, Viewing Them as a 'New Form of Money'

According to Decrypt, Sasha Mills, Executive Director of the Bank of England, stated that the Bank of England views stablecoins as 'a new form of money' and will not 'pick winners' between tokenized deposits and stablecoins. Mills mentioned that the Bank of England will open applications for 'systemic stablecoins' by the end of the year. These stablecoins are widely used for payments and may pose risks to financial stability, thus will be regulated by the central bank. Matthew Long, Director of Payments and Digital Assets at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), noted that other stablecoins will be regulated by the FCA, and there is still room for GBP-denominated stablecoins to play a role. Mills also pointed out that 99% of stablecoins globally are denominated in USD and do not comply with the U.S. GENIUS Act, with the UK aligning its timeline with the U.S.