The Bank of England tests interoperability between stablecoins and digital pound in cross-border trade
The Bank of England is already preparing the coexistence of stablecoins and the digital pound. Its Digital Pound Lab is testing a cross-border payment in which an exporter receives an advance in stablecoin before a British importer settles the transaction with simulated digital pounds. However, London has not yet decided to launch its CBDC.
The Bank of England tests a payment that links stablecoins and simulated digital pounds.
The experience focuses especially on financing active SMEs in international trade.
The UK has not yet officially decided to launch its digital pound.
Stablecoins enter the Digital Pound Lab
The trial is carried out with NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet, and Polygon Labs. It comes just as the Bank of England is already working on a new framework for stablecoins in pounds sterling.
The chosen scenario involves a company selling goods abroad. The exporter first receives an advance through a system that uses a stablecoin. The buyer located in the UK then makes the payment with a simulated digital pound.
There are still no real customers or real digital pounds. The Digital Pound Lab functions as a test environment. The Bank of England also clarifies that the experiments carried out there do not anticipate its future decisions.
For now, the British digital pound remains hypothetical.
This does not prevent the BoE from testing its uses—and, above all, its connections with other payment methods. A potential British CBDC would need to be able to circulate with bank deposits, existing payment systems, and likely stablecoins. The current experience provides a first glimpse of this mix.
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