Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Send Real Pounds Onchain: Do Banks Still Need Stablecoins?

What happened

Seven UK banks have completed live tokenized-deposit payments, according to the supplied article. The participating banks named in the title are Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds. Tokenized deposits are bank deposits recorded and moved on a blockchain, which is a shared digital ledger.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

If banks can move real pounds onchain through tokenized deposits, they may not need stablecoins, which are private digital tokens meant to track a currency. That could keep payment revenue and customer deposits inside regulated banks instead of shifting them to outside issuers.

Analyst inference

The test pits bank-issued digital money against stablecoins, which are crypto tokens pegged to a currency. If lenders adopt tokenized deposits at scale, crypto firms built on stablecoin payments could face slower growth, while banks could capture onchain payment fees.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Watch whether Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds expand these live tokenized-deposit payments beyond the completed test, since wider use would show banks intend to compete directly with stablecoins. Confirmed
2. Banks could add tokenized deposits to everyday services like business payments and cross-border transfers, which would let customers move real pounds onchain without buying a stablecoin. Proposed
3. Watch whether regulated banks keep real-pound tokenized-deposit payments inside their own systems, since wider bank adoption could pull payment fees, customer deposits and onchain money flows away from stablecoin issuers. Analyst inference

Evidence

• coinpaper.com