Cryptocurrencies: US Regulation

Baroness Kramer Excerpts

Wednesday 12th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question and pay tribute to his considerable expertise in this matter. I agree with what he said. Crypto assets have the potential to play a significant role in the financial services sector, and the economy more broadly, including through greater transparency, efficiency and security. We are already seeing the benefits that stablecoin can provide in cross-border payments by reducing costs and improving efficiency. Unlocking the full potential for digital assets and blockchain technologies requires payments that interact with them directly, and stablecoins can play an important role in achieving that. It is therefore important for the UK to harness those opportunities and—I agree with him on this—to bring forward legislation, and we will do so.

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, my concern is about the geopolitics. Much of the UK’s trade today is conducted in offshore dollars, which sit beyond the reach of the US Government. As dollar stablecoin replaces traditional dollars, the US Government will get their hands on levers to pressure us and others by threatening to curtail access. Are the Government looking at the key issues of monetary sovereignty? The regulators clearly are not.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. She is not correct to say that the regulators are not looking at that; of course they are taking it into account. She is absolutely right that the US is taking forward US-denominated stablecoin. It is very important that the UK does the same. The Government see stablecoin playing an important role in the diverse and competitive UK payments landscape. We hope that firms will see the advantages of being regulated as stablecoin issuers in the UK and will seek permissions under the new regime for that.