The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has selected four companies (Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, Revolut, and VVTX) to participate in its Regulatory Sandbox and test stablecoin products under conditions that mirror real-world operations. The cohort was drawn from 20 applications received by the regulator, with testing scheduled to begin in Q1 2026.
The Regulatory Sandbox allows firms to trial products and services in a live environment with appropriate safeguards in place. In this instance, the programme is focused on stablecoin issuance and will enable the FCA to assess its proposed policy framework under operational conditions. Each of the four selected firms will receive feedback directly from FCA specialists throughout the testing period.
The selected firms represent a range of stablecoin use cases, spanning payments, wholesale settlement, and crypto trading. This breadth is intended to give the regulator a comprehensive view of how stablecoin services function across different contexts and business models.
Shaping the UK's regulatory framework for crypto
The sandbox activity sits within a broader regulatory effort that the FCA has been advancing across several fronts. The regulator has already conducted multiple consultations covering stablecoin issuance and cryptoasset custody, prudential rules, conduct of business, admissions and disclosures, and market abuse. Those consultations are now substantively complete, and the FCA has indicated it will publish its Policy Statements in summer 2026.
The UK has been working to establish a framework that addresses crypto activities comprehensively. Authorisation under the forthcoming regime will be required for all firms conducting crypto activities in the country, with the application gateway opening in September 2026 and the full regime going live in October 2027. The FCA has also been running authorisation-focused webinars to help prospective applicants understand its expectations, including guidance on anti-money laundering rules.
The stablecoin sandbox cohort complements other FCA innovation initiatives, including the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS). A company official noted that the programme is designed to support stablecoin issuers so that their products 'can be trusted for payments, settlement and trading', and that the outcomes will benefit consumers as well as financial transactions more broadly, in alignment with the government's National Payments Vision.
Findings from the sandbox testing are expected to feed directly into the final stablecoin rules, which the FCA aims to publish later in 2026. The regulator has set out a comprehensive crypto roadmap, and the sandbox results are positioned as a practical input to that process, ensuring that the eventual rules are operationally grounded, clear, and supportive of responsible innovation in UK financial services.
