On June 22, 2022, Tether announced the launch of GBPT, a stablecoin that will be initially issued by the Ethereum blockchain. GBPT is pegged to the value of the British pound sterling, the oldest fiat currency in the world, first issued in 1694.
“GBPT will be a stable digital asset that is pegged 1:1 to the British Pound Sterling. GBPT will be built by the trusted team of developers behind tether USDT and operate under tether.to,” the Tether announcement sent to Bitcoin.com News details. “The creation of GBPT will put British Pounds on the blockchain and provide a faster, less costly option for asset transfers.”
USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap today with $68 billion and the project was just recently launched on the Polygon network. Over the last two months, more than 12 billion USDT has been removed from circulation.
USDT commands significant trade volume and today, tethers global volume is around $40.9 billion during the past 24 hours, while the entire crypto ecosystem recorded $76.5 billion in trades on Wednesday.
Out of the $956 billion crypto economy, USDTs market cap dominates by 7.035% and it is the third-largest crypto asset market cap out of 13,471 crypto assets.
Tether‘s GBPT announcement on Wednesday follows Circle’s recent euro coin (EUROC) launch. EUROC is Circles second fiat-pegged stablecoin, while Tether has released a few different kinds over the years.
Tether has a stablecoin pegged to China‘s yuan called CNHT and a euro-based stablecoin called EURT. At the end of May, Tether launched a fiat-pegged token tied to the Mexican peso’s value called MXNT.
The stablecoin issuer also has a token tied to the value of one ounce of fine gold called XAUT. Tether gold or XAUT has an overall market valuation of around $458,303,598 today.
“We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets,” Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. “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,” Ardoino added on Wednesday.