BCP Technologies has launched the first British pound-backed stablecoin from an FCA-registered crypto issuer.
BCP's tokenised GBP (tGBP) is backed 1:1 by reserves held in a segregated account at a UK-regulated financial institution and is fully redeemable for sterling at any time.
BCP says the stablecoin is now live after more than a year-long review process, including a month in the FCA's regulatory sandbox.
As the stablecoin market heats up, the firm is hoping to take advantage of the fact that GBP options have so far been limited, typically issued by offshore entities with low liquidity.
It says that tGBP uses the reliability of UK financial infrastructure for the minting and redeeming process and has the flexibility and speed of blockchain technology.
Benoit Marzouk, CEO, BCP Technologies, says: "tGBP supports a broad range of use cases: GBP self-custody for retail and corporates to bring an alternative from banks (and their inherent fractional reserve risk), cross-border payments, institutional collateral management, a GBP option for DeFi lending protocols and a GBP on-chain access for bitcoin-backed loans.
"It might also be used in the future as the main GBP rail for settling tokenised assets like bonds, securities, or real estate."