The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has chosen Revolut, Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise and VVTX to test stablecoin issuance in its regulatory sandbox as regulators move towards full regulation.
The FCA said the cohort would test stablecoin products in real-world conditions, with safeguards in place. The regulator plans to focus on issuance and examine use cases that include payments, wholesale settlement and trading of cryptocurrencies. Testing begins in the first quarter of 2026 and the FCA said the results will be incorporated into the stablecoin’s final rules later in 2026.
“We are supporting UK stablecoin issuers to ensure they can be trusted with payments, settlements and transactions,” said Matthew Long, director of payments and digital assets at the FCA. “This will benefit consumers and financial transactions and help deliver the FCA’s strategy and the Government’s national vision for payments.”
The industry is in decline
However, industry leaders have opposed 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 November 10, 2025 announcing stablecoin caps of between £5,000 and £20,000 for individuals and between £1 million and £10 million for businesses. Armstrong asked UK users to sign a petition to Parliament to have these caps reconsidered. The petition has 81,909 of the 100,000 signatures required.
“Stablecoin rules 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 Bank of England proposal to cap stablecoin holdings.
The government has repeatedly committed to positioning London as a center of global digital asset activity. However, comprehensive legislation governing stablecoins and broader crypto activity is only expected to be approved by Parliament later this year and will not come into force until 2027.
The regulatory timetable contradicts the UK’s goal of remaining globally competitive within the industry, Andrew MacKenzie, CEO of sterling stablecoin developer Agant, told CoinDesk in a recent Consensus Hong Kong interview. He said the introduction of rules was not moving quickly enough to support the aspirations of the global crypto hub.
“The UK has long been a financial center,” Armstrong said. “It’s important to embrace and encourage innovation, especially when other countries are moving quickly here, to maintain that.”
