Tether to issue sterling-pegged stablecoin, GBPT

Tether, the issuer of the largest U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, plans to expand its offerings with the introduction of GBPT, a stablecoin pegged to the British pound, according to a press release.

• The token will issued in July and will become the company's fifth stablecoin. It will join U.S. dollar-pegged USDT, Euro-pegged EURT, offshore Chinese yuan-pegged CNHT and the Mexican peso-pegged MXNT that was launched last month.

• The collapse of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD (UST) in May raised concerns about how stable stablecoins really are. While UST was designed to maintain its peg to the dollar programmatically, in contrast to Tether's stated approach of keeping near-cash investments that can be rapidly liquidated should the need arise, there have been calls for greater transparency about the quality and liquidity of those investments.

• In April the U.K. government said it hoped to become a global hub for crypto technology and investments.

• “We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation," Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement. “Tether is ready and willing to work with U.K. regulators to make this goal a reality and looks forward to the continued adoption of Tether stablecoins”.

• A committee in the House of Lords said that there is "no convincing case/" for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in January.