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The Bank of England announced plans to provide systemic stablecoin issuers with direct deposit accounts at the central bank and access to emergency liquidity facilities, marking a major step in integrating digital assets into UK financial infrastructure.
The framework, outlined Thursday at the Tokenisation Summit in London, would subject qualifying stablecoins to the same standards as traditional money while advancing the UK’s ambition to become a global hub for regulated digital finance.
At the heart of the BoE’s strategy is a belief that innovation and stability must advance together. Mills told the audience that 2026 would be “fundamental in shaping the UK’s digital financial future,” as the central bank works to ensure that Uk crypto adoption happens within a robust regulatory framework.
“The UK has the opportunity to build truly holistic digital financial markets,” — Sasha Mills, Executive Director for Financial Market Infrastructure, Bank of England.
She added that progress must be anchored in “resilience, proportionate supervision, and international coordination.”
The BoE’s intervention reflects growing global momentum around blockchain-based finance. While crypto assets have expanded rapidly in recent years, regulators have remained cautious, concerned about systemic risk, consumer protection, and financial crime.
By laying out a structured path forward, the Bank is signalling that Uk crypto adoption will be encouraged, but only under clear rules aligned with existing financial standards.
A central pillar of the plan is the creation of a regulatory regime for so-called systemic stablecoins digital tokens pegged to traditional currencies such as the pound, dollar, or euro, and used at scale for payments and settlement. Mills confirmed that these stablecoins would be jointly supervised by the BoE and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), reflecting their potential importance to the wider economy.
“Our regime proposes to provide systemic stablecoins with a deposit account at the Bank of England while also considering putting in place a liquidity facility to provide a backstop for stablecoin issuers,” — Sasha Mills, Executive Director, Bank of England.
Such measures, she explained, are designed to reduce risks to the UK banking system while supporting responsible Uk crypto adoption.
The proposed framework would allow qualifying stablecoin issuers to hold funds directly with the central bank, an arrangement similar to safeguards applied to other forms of money used in the real economy. “Systemic stablecoins need to meet the same standards as existing forms of money used in the UK real economy,” Mills said, underlining the BoE’s insistence on parity between digital and traditional finance.
The central bank aims to finalise the stablecoin regime by the end of 2026, following a consultation launched in 2025. If implemented, the rules could position regulated stablecoins as a cornerstone of Uk crypto adoption, particularly in wholesale markets and large-scale payments.
Beyond payments, the BoE is also moving to clarify how tokenised collateral — often referred to as tokenised real-world assets — can be used safely in financial markets. These assets represent traditional instruments, such as bonds or securities, recorded and transferred on a blockchain.
“Where traditional assets are tokenised and provided the risks of the overall tokenisation arrangement are appropriately mitigated, we don’t expect the types of risks from holding tokenised assets to differ in any material way,” — Sasha Mills, Executive Director, Bank of England.
This position suggests that Uk crypto adoption in capital markets may proceed without fundamentally changing risk profiles, provided safeguards are in place.
The BoE is working to clarify how tokenised collateral fits within the UK’s version of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), with further policy guidance expected later this year. By addressing legal and operational uncertainties, officials hope to remove barriers that have slowed Uk crypto adoption among institutional players.
The third strand of the Bank’s plan centres on the Digital Securities Sandbox, a controlled environment that allows firms to test the issuance, trading, and settlement of securities using distributed ledger technology. Mills said the BoE intends to broaden the range of settlement assets permitted in the sandbox, including regulated stablecoins.
“Our DSS framework is adaptable as we progress, allowing us to ‘learn as we go’ from innovators testing different business models within the sandbox,” — Sasha Mills, Executive Director, Bank of England.
The approach reflects a pragmatic effort to balance experimentation with oversight as Uk crypto adoption evolves.
The sandbox will also host the UK government’s digitally native gilt, known as DIGIT, enabling experiments with on-chain sovereign debt issuance and settlement. Officials see this as a way to test interoperability between blockchain systems and traditional financial infrastructure, a key requirement for scaling Uk crypto adoption beyond pilot projects.
Mills stressed that the UK’s ambitions cannot be pursued in isolation. She pointed to ongoing cooperation with the Financial Stability Board, IOSCO, the Basel Committee, and the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future, all aimed at ensuring global alignment as digital finance grows.
“The future is ambitious,” she said, adding that finalising the stablecoin regime, expanding the DSS, and clarifying tokenised collateral rules would “support financial stability domestically and internationally.”
As the UK accelerates these initiatives, the BoE’s message is clear: Uk crypto adoption is no longer a distant concept but an emerging reality one that will be shaped by cautious regulation as much as technological innovation.
