hYPE affects policymakers too often when it comes to market regulation. So it was comforting to hear Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey resist the momentum behind cryptocurrency. In a speech from Mansion House in July, he repeated his skepticism about the need for “Britcoin” central bank digital currency or UK stubcoin. Andrew’s attention is not wise and essential, as Donald Trump signs US laws on Stubcoin and rebrands private dollars in political colours.
The governor’s view is that British banks should not be allowed to issue their own stupidity. Also, banks should not effectively operate Britcoin bank accounts without a clear public interest. These are not Luddite’s views, but the views of regulators who are rightly concerned about creating new classes of fraudulent assets. The key question is not whether new technologies can be adopted in finance, but whether they should be, especially when the outcome of failure can affect the wider economy.
Former Tory Prime Minister George Osborne, who advises a massive cryptocurrency exchange, argued that Trump’s stubcoin embrace, privately issued digital money, means that the UK must sign up to stay relevant. Former Labor Minister Ed Boles thought of this simple thing in light of recent history. He was right.
Despite the branding, it is not stable. These private digital tokens are intended to be backed for one by real money, often by US dollars. But the peg is only as reliable as the institution that makes its promise. When commercial banks issue Stablecoin, as the International Village Bank noted, it effectively creates its own currency without the support, surveillance, or guarantee of “last resort lenders” from the central bank. This creates parallel financial markets that are prone to parallel operation, crashes and contagion, as occurred during the 19th century American Free Bank era.
But Trump is making progress by letting banks and even non-banks issue dollar peg crypto assets. He also utilizes the power of his office for visually personal gain. One of the Trump family’s cryptocurrencies is modestly estimated to have drawn at least $320 million since January, while another received a $2 billion investment from a foreign government assets fund. A third sold at least $550 million in tokens. Harvard’s Stephen Levitsky spoke to many this summer when he told the Guardian “I have never seen such open corruption in modern government.”
Cyberlibertarians view cryptocurrencies as a tool to avoid state management, regulation and taxation, and coordinate fundamental right-wing ideas about government as issues. This appears to be the view of British hedge fund tycoon and media baron Paul Marshall. Such ideological take does not help stable capital markets or effective consumer protection. The UK financial sector should be small for the country’s long-term health, but it needs to remain competitive under regulatory conditions that maintain stability, not only in keeping pace with Trump-era financial populism and Petro’s opportunism. Crypto is a gambling game where not only technology, but money means and who can control it.
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This article was revised on July 30, 2025. Andrew Bailey doesn’t have a Knights, as the previous versions stated.
