The UK Government will soon announce plans to regulate the crypto industry. Stablecoins in particular will be the subject of extensive regulation, CNBC reports. It seems that the English Finance Minister, Rishi Sunak, will announce the new regulatory framework within a few weeks.

The UK bitcoin regulation

According to CNBC, the first sounds are pretty positive for the crypto industry. There will be no ban or other draconian measures. Instead, the regulation will create much-needed legal clarity. For the time being, the uncertainty among English crypto investors remains great, because it is not clear what exactly the position of the crypto industry is within English law.

Officials within the Ministry are said to be aware of the complexity of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. In addition, they would also be willing to listen to experts within the industry. For example, there has recently been a lot of consultation between the Ministry and some leading crypto companies, including the Gemini exchange.

CNBC states that it is mainly stablecoins that the English government is somewhat concerned about. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is linked to an underlying currency, such as the US dollar, for example. The stablecoin sector has grown astronomically hard in recent years and this growth is worrying regulators.

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, now has a total circulating supply of over $ 80 billion. That’s a huge increase from just about $ 4 billion two years ago. These stablecoins have also raised serious concerns among regulators, who fear that they are not fully backed by an equivalent amount of reserves, and are used for money laundering and other illegal activities.

It is not only in the United Kingdom that stablecoins are looked at with Argus eyes by regulators. Also in the United States, regulators are worried about stablecoins. For example, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called stablecoins “poker chips” a while back.