U.K. Launches First Licensed Stablecoin tGBP

After 14 months of regulatory review and official participation in the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory sandbox, the stablecoin tGBP, backed by the British pound sterling, was officially launched.

BCP Technologies announced the release of Tokenised GBP (tGBP), the first stablecoin denominated in pounds sterling and issued by a company registered with the FCA. The new digital asset is fully backed 1:1 by reserves held in a segregated account at a U.K.-regulated financial institution and is available for purchase and redemption via the BCP Markets platform.

The tGBP smart contract was deployed on the Ethereum network over a year ago and passed an independent audit. The product supports a wide range of use cases, from self-custody savings and banking alternatives to enabling DeFi lending, cross-border payments, and settlements of tokenized assets such as bonds or real estate. Each tGBP token is fully backed by fiat reserves and can be instantly redeemed for pounds sterling.

Benoit Marzouk, CEO of BCP Technologies, stated that tGBP targets both retail and institutional clients, offering secure transfer of pounds through blockchain technology without intermediaries and price volatility.

The issuance of tGBP became possible after more than a year of FCA review, including one month in the regulated sandbox. The media coverage of the launch coincides with the FCA’s public consultations on stablecoin issuance and crypto-asset custody regulation.

In November 2024, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority unveiled a roadmap for comprehensive digital asset regulation, expected to be enacted in 2026. Starting January 1, 2026, all crypto services operating in the U.K. will be required to collect and report detailed user and transaction data to the regulator, including their internal reporting.