The UK 250-page stablecoin review confirms it is playing catch up

The UK has finally decided to open a discussion on stablecoins, in the year 2025, by publishing a nearly 250-page consultation paper.

That would be less embarrassing if Japan hadn’t passed its Stablecoin Law in 2022. Or Singapore in 2023. Or Abu Dhabi in 2024. Or if the US Congress and President Trump didn’t just approve the GENIUS Act, which gives stablecoins a central place in American financial infrastructure.

But here we are, the UK (a big deal in global economics and financial markets) is still writing reports. It’s not even late at this point, it’s completely out of the race. While others wrote real laws, the UK government is still in the brainstorming phase.

What makes it worse, perhaps, is how low-cost good regulation actually is. It doesn’t need taxpayer funding, big investments, or bloated programs. Smart regulation costs nothing and brings in everything; innovation, capital, jobs. The UK missed this train ages ago.

UK failed to act while others built infrastructure

After Brexit, there was a rare opening, since the City of London was no longer tied to Brussels. So the stage seemed all set for the UK to become the global center for crypto. And Rishi Sunak, a former finance guy serving as Prime Minister at the time, knew the stakes.

But as always, knowing something in government doesn’t mean it gets done. He was overloaded, and no one else took the wheel, so of course nothing happened.

Meanwhile, USDC’s Circle went public just a month ago. Its market cap has already crossed $50 billion. Investors in the US are now treating stablecoins as the base currency for everything built on blockchain. This isn’t new.

In 2021, hedge fund Marshall Wace arranged a private dinner with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and two top UK regulators. Jeremy laid out the case for stablecoins driving the next era of financial tech. One of the British officials left that meeting and allegedly called them “a bunch of libertarians.”

First of all, that was just unnecessarily rude. But also, it revealed a system that laughs at innovation while the rest of the world is busy adopting it. Singapore and Abu Dhabi didn’t find crypto bros funny, or disgusting.

They saw what crypto could become and moved fast. The UK, by contrast, continues to treat anything not created by its own bureaucracy as suspicious. It doesn’t help that the current economic strategy is based on more public spending and higher taxes.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves may have spoken about encouraging risk in her Mansion House speech, but her policies are anchored in the idea of “stability.” She’s surrounded by layers of government that have no clue how to build a real tech economy.

Across the Atlantic, Scott Bessent, her US counterpart, actually gets it. He’s been in markets for decades; the guy practically grew up on Wall Street. He knows what works: cheap energy, free markets, and innovation. He’s called crypto “one of the most important phenomena in the world right now.”

Scott believes stablecoins will become the main currency on the blockchain, and sees them as a tool to expand dollar dominance. Every time someone uses USDC and buys Treasury bills, they’re effectively backing the US economy. He gets it, and that’s what real leadership looks like.

Meanwhile, the EU and China are going all-in on central bank digital currencies. These are coins tied directly to government accounts. They let the state track every payment, pause transactions, freeze accounts… basically, total control. The stablecoin model is the opposite of that since it is created by private firms. It’s held by users. It’s not subject to bureaucratic chokeholds.

One system is about control. The other is about freedom. And the UK still hasn’t picked one. If we’re lucky, before the year is over, Brussels might finally figure out what good policymaking actually looks like.