The Bank of England is preparing to soften parts of its draft stablecoin rules after pressure from crypto industry participants, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Sarah Breeden, the BOE’s deputy governor for financial stability, told the FT that the bank’s initial proposal to cap individual stablecoin holdings at £20,000 ($27,000) per coin “may have been overly conservative.” The central bank is “looking very hard at whether there are different ways we can manage what we think is an important risk as stablecoins come into play,” she said, signaling a willingness to rethink the mechanics of the temporary limit. Stablecoins — tokens pegged to traditional assets such as fiat currencies, most commonly the U.S. dollar — have become a cornerstone of crypto’s push into mainstream finance. Industry groups warned the BOE’s original measures could hamper the U.K.’s competitiveness in the digital economy. Officials acknowledged the implementation approach was seen as operationally cumbersome for a temporary restriction and said they were open to alternative ways to meet their objectives. The Bank is also reportedly prepared to relax another stringent element of its draft rules that would require at least 40% of stablecoin reserves to be held as non‑interest‑bearing deposits at the central bank, with the remaining 60% invested in short-term U.K. government debt. Those ratios are tighter than proposals in some other markets, including the U.S., and industry players have pushed to hold more interest‑bearing assets to support business economics. “Not surprisingly, the industry would prefer to hold more interest‑earning assets, as that goes to their bottom line,” Breeden said. Crypto firms welcomed the shift in tone. “These are important signals from the Bank of England that it is prepared to revisit its stablecoin proposals,” Katie Haries, Coinbase’s head of policy for Europe, said by email. “We’ve said for a long time that a cap on stablecoin holdings is a cap on innovation, with real and significant risks for UK competitiveness.” The Financial Times broke the story; the BOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news