UK Banks Prove Programmable Cash Can Work Without Stablecoins

Seven major British banks have successfully completed live tokenized-deposit payments, raising questions about whether stablecoins are still necessary.

The transactions were carried out through the Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative, which involved Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, and four other banks. Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, and Santander also participated in the pilot project, with Quant developing the shared platform.

The first use cases included two remortgage completions and a consumer marketplace payment, with funds locked and released automatically once agreed conditions were met.

This development creates an obvious question for stablecoins: if banks can give ordinary deposits similar programmable features without issuing separate tokens, do they really need them?

Tokenized bank deposits become programmable while keeping customer money inside the traditional deposit system. However, stablecoins still have one big advantage, they are easier to move across public blockchain networks and between users who don't share the same bank.

UK Finance announced that future pilots will connect tokenized customer money with digital assets and test digital debt instruments settled using tokenized deposits.