The Daily Peg
Introducing OpenUSD: One USD stablecoin to rule them all.
Editorial Hello
Greetings from the Stablecoins Unblocked conference in the heart of Canary Wharf in London, where I’ve just been moderating a panel about the geopolitics of stablecoins.
It was a topical start given that we learned overnight that Donald Trump has made no less than $1.2 billion by mixing business and politics through crypto and stablecoin investments in 2025.
To no one’s surprise, the discussion focused heavily on the extent to which stablecoins can be used to reinforce the dominance of the dollar. But we also touched upon how more precarious economies can use similar tools to break free from that influence. And why the ECB is so particularly resistant to stablecoins.
I also got to hobnob with some of the companies gearing up to issue GBP stablecoins and get their take on the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s now finalised regulatory framework. The most surprising thing I learned is that for non-systemic coins supervised under the FCA framework, it isn’t necessarily the win for industry that many are making out.
Yes, there are some clear improvements — for example, the highly draconian requirement for issuers to honour redemption requests of even a single token within 24 hours, while also conducting all the necessary KYC and AML checks, has been greatly relaxed. Companies can now take however long they need to perform the necessary checks. Only once customers are fully onboarded are they obligated to ensure redemptions are honoured on a T+1 basis.
But the 1% capitalisation requirement — which comes beyond the separate requirement to back issued stablecoins 1:1 with reserve assets — still feels stifling, despite having been reduced from 2%.
In general, there was a sense that regulators had deployed an “art of the deal” playbook to win the optics war — i.e., being seen as working with industry, when in practice, their starting point was so onerous that even meeting in the middle on certain rules is still a major win for them.
We’ll have more from the conference later.
