The Bank of England will announce a new regulatory regime for stablecoins on 10 November 2025, with Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden noting the aim to be operational “as soon as in the U.S.”. The framework affects issuers, platforms and users by introducing differentiated supervision and temporary holding limits intended to preserve the stability of the British financial system.
The announced framework combines international alignment with local adaptations, according to an internal paper and official statements. It explicitly cites U.S. legislation as a reference—the GENIUS Act (July 2025)—and states the intention to keep a competitive pace without literally replicating other jurisdictions.
The proposal establishes a bifurcated architecture: the Bank of England will assume direct supervision of stablecoins considered ‘systemic’, comparable in impact to critical payment infrastructures, while the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will regulate ‘non-systemic’ stablecoins as monetary instruments. This approach seeks to differentiate risks and apply proportionate regulation according to the potential for destabilization.
As a preventive measure, the text proposes temporary holding caps: £20,000 per individual investor and £10 million per corporate entity, designed to curb mass transfers of bank deposits to tokenized assets that could erode commercial banks’ liquidity.
The UK is accelerating the integration of digital assets into wholesale markets with the creation of a financial collateral regime specific to digital assets and proposals to issue on-chain sovereign debt (‘digital gilts’) under the DIGIT framework, all framed within a broader market dematerialization strategy.
Regulatory architecture and international alignment
An additional policy line includes changes to product access: the FCA has lifted a four-year ban on exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to cryptoassets, expanding the regulated offering to retail investors. Simultaneously, HM Revenue & Customs has stepped up enforcement, with 65,000 communications (‘nudge letters’) to investors for alleged non-compliance, an increase of 134% compared to the previous year, according to HMRC data.
Brief definition: a stablecoin is a cryptoasset designed to maintain parity with a reference asset (for example, a fiat currency).
The combination of risk-based supervision, holding limits and a digital collateral regime signals greater legal certainty for institutions looking to use stablecoins as collateral. It may pressure business models reliant on high exit liquidity, while fostering regulatory interoperability with the U.S. without ignoring domestic banking vulnerabilities.
The official announcement is scheduled for 10 November 2025; its implementation will define institutional adoption and liquidity conditions in the UK’s tokenized markets.
