- The major British bank Barclays has acquired a stake in the US fintech Ubyx, thereby sending a signal for the next possible development phase of digital financial infrastructures.
- As Reuters reports, Barclays primarily wants to use the investment to evaluate regulated forms of “tokenized money”, i.e. digital forms of money that are regulated within the existing supervisory framework.
The idea is not to have your own tokens, but to take care of the infrastructure that integrates stablecoins into existing systems. Ubyx is developing a settlement and clearing layer that connects stablecoins from multiple issuers and allows them to be redeemed at par. Stablecoins should be better integrated into the traditional financial system and recognized as cash equivalents.
The company is working on an infrastructure that will treat stablecoins like classic bank deposits – regardless of blockchain, issuer or wallet environment. The aim is a universal settlement layer that allows banks, fintechs and institutions to use digital forms of money in a standardized, regulated manner. Barclays sees this as a strategic building block for future capital market and payment processes, especially in light of its own regulation in its home country of Great Britain.
Wanted: The best digital money standard
The project represents the intention of major banks not to primarily issue their own tokens, but to focus on the infrastructure that integrates stablecoins and tokenized deposits into existing systems. Barclays has already participated in several industry projects focused on G7-backed, fully reserved digital bank money systems.
By joining Ubyx, Barclays is now entering an early market in a market that is expected to consolidate quickly once the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority present their final regulatory framework for stablecoins. The aim is to make tokenized money, such as deposits based on stablecoins or tokenized bank balances, usable for regulated financial institutions.
Ubyx is already backed by Coinbase Ventures and Galaxy Digital, according to Reuters, and is considered one of the few companies focused exclusively on regulated interoperability.
Financial details about the investment were not disclosed. For Barclays, however, it is the clearest approach to stablecoin-based settlement models to date – and an indication that the bank does not view digital forms of money from a speculative perspective, but rather as a further development of the payment infrastructure.
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