Tether to Issue a British Pound-Pegged Stablecoin

The industry’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, announced that it will be introducing a token pegged to the British pound next month. The stablecoin, GBPT, will initially be supported by the Ethereum blockchain.

This will be the fifth fiat currency-pegged stablecoin that Tether has launched. Until GBPT, Tether has launched stablecoins USDT (dollar-pegged), EURT (euro-pegged), CHNT (Chinese Yuan-pegged), and MXNT (peso-pegged).

Tether was inspired to launch the GBPT after the United Kingdom announced in April that it intends to become a “crypto asset technology hub”. Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement that the ” United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets”.

Stablecoins have taken a significant portion of the market cap recently. Three of the six top coins currently are pegged by the U.S. dollar, with Tether’s USDT being the leading one. Since May, USDC’s market cap has increased by 5%.

This is despite the high-profile collapse of what used to be the third-largest stablecoin, Terra’s UST, early last month. The collapse sparked the redemption wave, as investors began to lose faith in stablecoins, in general. However, according to Ardoino, Tether can handle redemption waves “without the blink of an eye”, while also maintaining its peg.