BCP Technologies has launched a stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling

What’s new? UK-registered cryptocurrency company BCP Technologies has launched a Tokenised GBP (tGBP) stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling. The asset is already available on its BCP Markets trading platform for authenticated (KYC) customers.

Material by CoinTelegraph

What else is known? BCP Technologies CEO Benoit Marzouk noted that two major crypto exchanges also intend to list tGBP in the coming weeks.

The launch of the asset comes after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a public consultation on May 28 on proposed new rules for stablecoin issuers and cryptocurrency custody providers.

According to Marzouk, tGBP can be considered a proof-of-concept (PoC) of the regulator’s proposed rules. Thus, BCP is working closely with the FCA and intends to participate in a thematic roundtable on July 4.

In total, the regulatory preparation for the launch of tGBP took the company more than a year: 14 months were spent filing an application for the new product, with another month testing it within the FCA’s regulatory sandbox.

tGBP is fully backed by cash held in a separate bank account. The stablecoin is launched based on the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. BCP proposes to back tGBP with short-term government bonds in the future.

tGBP targets a wide range of use cases, including self-storage for retail customers and corporations as an alternative to bank deposits, cross-border payments, institutional collateral management, and decentralized lending.

The asset is also expected to be used as a means to settle tokenized assets such as bonds, securities, or real estate.

Aggregator CoinGecko currently only tracks two pound-pegged stablecoins: the VNX British Pound (VGBP) and Celo British Pound (CGBP) with a combined market capitalization of less than $500 000.

There is also GBPT, launched by Blackfridge in 2022, and Agant’s GBPA.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, tried to launch a Pound-based asset in 2022, but the latter did not gain significant traction in the market.

BCP Technologies has been an FCA-registered crypto asset service provider since 2021, formerly known as BitcoinPoint. According to the CEO, BCP was the first crypto firm in the country to offer bitcoin purchases through a bank account.