Digital Money

On 25 October 2027, the “crypto-asset” regime for the United Kingdom comes into effect, and Stablecoins will be regulated in detail for the first time. They will take their place in a money and payments “eco-system” in which traditional bank deposits, Tokenised Deposits, Stablecoins and, possibly, a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) interact seamlessly without imperilling the “singleness” of money.

Interoperability between payments networks and adoption by established distribution networks are the keys to scale in digital money but their effectiveness depends on consumer confidence. Interoperability requires infrastructure but the right combination of public initiative and private incentive has yet to be found, though it likely lies in not-for-profit utility models. Programmable money can catalyse adoption of digital monies by enabling agentic AI payments and creating a

The perception that Stablecoins are breaking out of their original cryptocurrency niche and impacting both domestic and cross-border payments is overstated. The cost, speed and accessibility advantages of Stablecoins have yet to disrupt existing domestic and cross-border payments services or money market practices. The number of digital wallets capable of accepting Stablecoins is a better measure of the ultimate scalability of Stablecoins than the number of Stablecoin issuers

The main obstacle to tokenised deposits scaling is lack of interoperability between the tokenised deposits of individual banks. Banks are also coming to appreciate the costs and complexities of building the internal systems and procedures to support tokenised deposits. In the long run, tokenised deposits will outperform Stablelecoins in terms of both stocks and flows. Tokenised deposits are also better placed than Stablecoins to deliver the most valuable promise of tokenised

Regulatory frameworks are converging conceptually but diverging on where issuers and reserves must sit legally. Institutional buyers already treat Stablecoins, tokenised deposits and CBDCs as distinct tools, not interchangeable substitutes for each other. The dominant Stablecoin issuer remains largely outside the new regulatory perimeter, exposing a gap between rulemaking and market reality. Corporate and treasury adoption, not financial markets infrastructure, is emerging as

The euro is the second most important central bank reserve currency behind the US dollar. Yet it has lacked a Stablecoin presence commensurate with its international status: 99 per cent of Stablecoins are issued in US dollars and euros account for just 0.2 per cent of Stablecoins in circulation worldwide. 37 European banks from 15 countries have now joined forces to address that gap, supplying both the funding and the power to distribute a euro Stablecoin for use as an atomic

Stablecoins are not booming and CBDCs are not dead, especially in Europe where the ECB is pressing ahead with plans for a digital euro in 2028. Different uses-cases will rely on different forms of tokenised money and the private sector is building the necessary infrastructure. Corporates are drivers of change in payments and cash management and may be pioneering the disintermediation of the banks.

Asset manager Fidelity has issued a US dollar-denominated Stablecoin called Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD) onto the Ethereum blockchain The issuance follows the granting to Fidelity of a conditional trust bank licence by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) FIDD circumvents GENIUS Act restrictions on paying interest to Stablecoin holders by integrating FIDD with a tokenised money market fund Fidelity Investments has launched a US dollar-denominated Stablecoin,

Cross-border payments platform Payoneer has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter A federal banking licence will enable Payoneer customers to pay and get paid in Stablecoins and hold Stablecoin balances in digital wallets Payoneer plans to issue its own US dollar-denominated Stablecoin that its clients can use to settle cross-border payments and hold in digital wallets Payoneer , the cross-border payments technology p

Anchorage Digital has launched a US dollar Stablecoin payments service aimed at foreign banks currently using correspondent banks The new service enables banks to buy and sell and hold in custody a variety of US dollar-denominated Stablecoins authorised under the GENIUS Act The regulated status of Anchorage Digital Bank is expected to appeal to foreign banks willing to use blockchain infrastructure that eliminates regulatory risk Anchorage Digital , the regulated provider of

Société Générale subsidiary SG-FORGE is making its EUR CoinVertible euro-denominated Stablecoin available on the Ripe-owned blockchain XPRL Société Générale hopes XPRL will increase use of the EUR CoinVertible, already available on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, in trading activity Euro Stablecoins remain modest by comparison with US dollar equivalents but S&P predicts a €1.1 trillion markets by 2030 as Stablecoins are used in payments French universal bank Société Géné

Stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge has secured a conditional federal banking licence from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) The licence, once fully approved, will enable Bridge to custody digital assets, issue Stablecoins and hold Stablecoin reserves Bridge is the sixth Stablecoin or digital assets company to secure an OCC banking licence in the last five months Bridge , the Stablecoin infrastructure provider owned by Stripe since February last year,

Cross-border payments company Payoneer is adding Stablecoins to the payment options it offers customers The Stablecoin capabilities will be deliver via technology supplied by Bridge, the Stablecoin infrastructure provider owned by Stripe Users of the Payoneer service will be able to hold Stablecoins, pay and get paid in Stablecoins, and transfer the value of Stablecoins to bank accounts Payoneer , the Israeli cross-border payments company that listed on NASDAQ in 2021 via a S

Emmanuel Daniel, founder of the TAB Global research house, thinks about the effects of digital technology on finance and how the changes it makes possible will impact business and society. In The Great Transition – the personalisation of finance is here, published in September 2022, he predicted that blockchain technology would shift Internet finance from centralised, market-based platforms to a distributed, networked, personalised and democratised model. Today, he is concern

The government of Bermuda is working with Circle and Coinbase to put the island economy on blockchain Circle will provide the USDC Stablecoin and Coinbase the blockchain infrastructure Payments by USDC are merely the starting point for tokenisation of all financial transactions and assets in Bermuda The Government of Bermuda has announced it plans to move the island’s economy on to the blockchain, initially by embracing the USDC Stablecoin issued by Circle as the principal

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has built an infrastructure with Canton Network called DisH to put commercial bank money on-chain The DiSH infrastructure, unlike the tokenised deposit platforms developed by banks, is an open network not a closed universe DisH aims to facilitate settlement of traditional financial market transactions as well as digital asset transactions on blockchains On 15 January 2026 the London Stock Exchange Group ( LSEG ) announced it had launched

Lloyds Bank issued tokenised sterling deposits onto the Canton Network public blockchain and used them to buy a gilt-edged security from Archax Lloyds ran its own node on the Canton Network rather than rely on the network provider, so retained control of customer service standards Tokenised deposits, unlike Stablecoins, enable users to stay within regulatory perimeters and deposit insurance schemes Lloyds Banking Group , Archax and Canton Network say they have proved that a

J.P. Morgan is pioneering the use of tokenised deposits to make payments between banks J.P. Morgan blockchain unit is issuing its tokenised deposit on Canton Network, the second public blockchain it is using after Base The native issue of the JPMD tokenised deposit on to Canton Network will take place in phases through 2026 Tokenised deposits, hitherto trapped within banks, are starting to become available for inter-bank payments through native issuance on public networks. Ki

Sony Bank, the online banking arm of Sony Corporation, is considering the issuance of a Sony-branded US dollar Stablecoin Sony Bank is working with Bastion, an NYDFS-licensed blockchain infrastructure provider, in the United States Stablecoins enable corporates to capture customer spending, offer micro-rewards, cut payment transaction costs and earn net interest margin Sony Bank Inc. , the online banking arm of the Sony Group Corporation, the Japanese electronics, video games

The pivot by R3 from private to public blockchains through its partnership with Solana might be one of those apparently arcane technical deals - like IBM and Microsoft or Apple and ARM - that changes everything. It allies regulated, institutional money with an open blockchain protocol that can compete with existing equity and debt marketplaces on volume, speed and price, while still delivering on the central promise of blockchain: elimination of high levels of financial inter