Tether, the issuer of the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT, is planning to introduce a new stablecoin pegged to the British pound.

British pound-pegged stablecoin

Tether announced today that the GBT token will be launched in July and will first be available on the Ethereum blockchain. It will be the company’s fifth stablecoin, joining USDT, EURT, the offshore Chinese yuan-pegged CNHT, and the Mexican peso-pegged MXNT.

“We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets,” Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement. “We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer.”

Circle launches Euro-backed stablecoin

While Tether is now the largest stablecoin issuer, Circle, the issuer of USDC and Tether’s primary competitor, is issuing a new fiat-backed digital asset called Euro Coin (EUROC) in an apparent attempt to increase its market share by also introducing a new stablecoin.

“Euro Coin is being issued under a regulated framework for money transmission, under the same statutes that regulate USDC, with full reserves in Euro,” Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote in a tweet.