The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) selected Revolut, Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise and VVTX to test stablecoin issuance in its Regulatory Sandbox as regulators move towards a full rulebook.
The FCA said the cohort will trial stablecoin products under real-world conditions with safeguards in place. The regulator plans to focus on issuance and review use cases that include payments, wholesale settlement and crypto trading. Testing will begin in the first quarter of 2026, and the FCA said the results will feed into the final stablecoin rules later in 2026.
“We are supporting UK stablecoin issuers to ensure they can be trusted for payments, settlement and trading,” said Matthew Long, director of payments and digital assets at the FCA. “It will benefit consumers and financial transactions and help deliver the FCA’s strategy and the Government’s national payments vision.”
The industry is retreating
However, industry leaders have pushed back against the Bank of England’s (BoE) stablecoin caps, saying they limit innovation and prevent the UK from becoming the global hub it aims to be.
The BoE published a paper on 10 November 2025 announcing stablecoin caps of between £5,000 and £20,000 for individuals and £1 million to £10 million for businesses. Armstrong asked UK users to sign a petition to parliament asking for these caps to be reconsidered. The petition has 81,909 of the 100,000 required signatures.
“Stablecoin regulations in the UK are being finalized and risk preventing the UK from being globally competitive in the digital economy,” Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, wrote on X on Tuesday. He cited a proposal by the Bank of England to limit stablecoin holdings.
The government has repeatedly pledged to position London as a center for global digital asset activity. However, comprehensive legislation regulating stablecoins and broader crypto activity is not expected to be approved by parliament until later this year and will not come into force until 2027.
The regulatory timeline contradicts the UK’s aim to remain globally competitive in the industry, Andrew MacKenzie, CEO of sterling stablecoin developer Agant, told CoinDesk in a recent interview at Consensus Hong Kong. He said that the introduction of regulations is not moving fast enough to support the hopes of the global crypto hub.
“The UK has a long history of being a financial hub,” Armstrong said. “Embracing and encouraging innovation, especially when other countries are moving quickly here, is important to sustain it.”
