Barclays has strengthened its strategy in the digital currency space with a concrete step. The British banking giant has invested in Ubyx, a US-based stablecoin consensus initiative, marking its first direct capital injection into a stablecoin-focused company. The development was announced by Reuters. While Barclays did not share the financial details of the agreement, it was emphasized that the move is consistent with the bank's goal of exploring "new forms of digital currency."
According to Barclays, the Ubyx investment is a step towards its goal of developing tokenized currency solutions within regulatory boundaries. The bank prefers to proceed through infrastructure providers and consortia rather than acting alone in this area. This is where Ubyx comes in. Founded in 2025, the company is developing a clearing and consensus system to reconcile transactions between different stablecoin issuers. The aim is to create a common technical layer in the increasingly fragmented stablecoin market.
Ubyx investors are well-known companies
The investor profile behind Ubyx is also noteworthy. In July, the company completed a $10 million seed funding round led by Galaxy Ventures. Significant participants included Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, and VanEck. This demonstrates the increasingly blurred lines between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem. Furthermore, the recent appointment of former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz as an advisor to Ubyx suggests the company aims to take a strong position on the regulatory side as well. Barclays' investment is part of a broader trend spearheaded by banks. In October, the bank joined a consortium of nine institutions, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, to explore the idea of a regulated stablecoin pegged to a basket of G7 currencies. On the European side, a separate initiative announced last September stands out. A group including ING, UniCredit, KBC, and other European banks decided to create a new company to launch a MiCAR-compliant, euro-based stablecoin. This Amsterdam-based entity is expected to launch its token in the second half of 2026. These steps are driven by the scale of the stablecoin market. The total circulating stablecoin supply has exceeded $290 billion. Tether's USDT holds over 64% of the market with a supply of approximately $187 billion. While stablecoins are still primarily used as a medium of exchange and liquidity in cryptocurrency markets, their share in cross-border payments is steadily increasing. Despite this, banks appear cautious about directly issuing stablecoins. Although Societe Generale's crypto arm, SG-FORGE, launched a euro-based stablecoin in 2023, the circulating supply remained limited. In the US, giants like Bank of America and Citigroup have stated they are investigating the matter, but there is no concrete launch yet. Barclays' approach is to adopt the role of an infrastructure player rather than a coin issuer. Finally, it should be noted that the bank had previously restricted cryptocurrency purchases with credit cards due to volatility and fraud risks. Therefore, this purchase attracted more attention in the crypto space.
