The major stablecoin company Tether is expanding its stablecoin offering with a new cryptocurrency pegged to the British Pound (GBP).
Tether officially announced on Wednesday that its upcoming sterling-pegged stablecoin, GBPT, will launch in early July and will receive initial support from the Ethereum blockchain.
GBPT will be a stable digital currency linked in 1:1 ratio to GBP, with the aim of offering a faster and cheaper option for asset transfers.
GBPT joins a family of four other fiat-pegged Tether (USDT) tokens, including the largest stablecoin by market cap, USDT. Other stablecoins include EURT, pegged to the euro, CNHT, pegged to the Chinese yuan, as well as the recently launched MXNT, the stablecoin pegged to the Mexican peso.
According to the announcement, GBPT will be built by the team of developers behind Tether USDT and will operate under their main website, Tether.to:
“We look forward to helping lead this innovation by providing crypto users around the world with access to a sterling-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer […] Tether is ready and willing to work with UK regulators to make this a reality and looks forward to continued adoption of Tether stablecoins.”
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino noted that the UK is an important location for the next wave of industry transformationand added that:
The statement also mentions that the Kingdom Treasury in April 2022 announced plans to turn the country into a global cryptocurrency hub and introduce stablecoins into its regulatory framework. The UK Ministry of Economy and Finance also planned to amend its regulatory framework to include stablecoins as a means of payment.
Tether’s GBPT launch comes amid the plunge below $70 billion in terms of market capitalization of the company’s main stablecoin, USDT.for the first time since October 2021. The stablecoin had previously reached a value of over $80 billion in May 2022.
The reduction in Tether’s market capitalization came amid the continued market decline and uncertainty around stablecoins, caused by the failure of algorithmic stablecoins like Terra USD.. Unlike algorithmic stablecoins, asset-backed stablecoins such as Tether tokens are 100% backed by cash or cash equivalents such as bank deposits, Treasury bills, and others.
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