Britain reveals plans to mint its own NFT
Key takeaways:
- U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has requested the Royal Mint to make and issue the NFT “by the summer,” a government minister told Monday.
- City Minister John Glen announced several steps the U.K. will take to get digital assets under more regulatory scrutiny.
- He states the government wants Britain to “lead the way” in crypto.
ON MONDAY, the U.K. government revealed plans to mint its non-fungible token as a stimulus toward becoming a “world leader” in the cryptocurrency space.
Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has requested the Royal Mint — the government-owned firm liable for minting coins for the U.K. — to make and issue the NFT “by the summer,” City Minister John Glen said at a fintech event in London. “There will be more details available very soon,” he added.
According to Glen, the initiative is a component of a broader struggle by the government to “lead the way” in crypto. The minister reported several measures the U.K. will take to get digital assets under more regulatory scrutiny, including plans to:
- Get specific stablecoins into the U.K. payments framework so that stablecoin issuers and service providers can “work and grow in the U.K.”
- Consult on a “world-leading regime” for controlling trade in other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
- Request the Law Commission to consider the lawful standing of blockchain-based communities known as decentralized independent organizations or DAOs.
- Examine the tariff treatment of decentralized finance (DeFi) loans and “staking,” giving crypto users the power to make interest on their savings.
- Set a Cryptoasset Engagement Group chaired by ministers and host members from U.K. regulators and crypto businesses.
- Examine the application of blockchain technology in giving debt instruments.
“We shouldn’t think of regulation as static, rigid,” Glen said. “Rather, we should consider regulatory ‘code’ — like computer code — which we purify and rewrite when needed.”