Tether plans to launch a token that's pegged to the British pound

Tether plans to launch a token that's pegged to the British pound

Tether, the company behind several leading stablecoins, is planning to introduce a new token pegged to the British pound. The company has said that it will launch GBPT in early July with initial support for the Ethereum blockchain. The company chose to create GBPT because of recent decisions by the UK Treasury to make the country into a global crypto hub.

By introducing GBPT, Tether will have created four stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies. USDT is pegged to the U.S. dollar, EURT is pegged to the euro, CNHT is pegged to the Chinese yuan, and MXNT, which was recently launched, is pegged to the Mexican peso. As long as the UK keeps on with its plans, and Tether’s stablecoins don’t collapse (as we’ve seen with other stablecoins), Brits could end up using GBPT as a valid form of payment for goods and services.

Discussing the news, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, said:

“We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets. We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer. Tether is ready and willing to work with UK regulators to make this goal a reality and looks forward to the continued adoption of Tether stablecoins”

Tether says that its tokens are backed 1-to-1 with their matching currency. At the time of writing, USDT is backed by $66.9 billion, EURT is backed by €234 million, CHNT by ¥20.5 million, and MXNT by $19.5 million. It also has a stablecoin called XAUT and this is backed by 246,524 fine troy ounces of gold.