UK Minister Says Government Only Has Time to Implement Stablecoin, Staking Legislation

• U.K. Economic Secretary Bim Afolami said he is confident the government can only implement stablecoin and staking rules in the coming weeks.
• A general election is expected to occur in the second half of the year.

The current U.K. government will only have enough time to implement stablecoin and staking secondary legislation in the coming weeks, Economic Secretary Bim Afolami said on Wednesday.

“What I’m very confident we’ll be able to achieve is the secondary legislation around staking and stablecoins. Those two things are absolute priorities in the coming weeks and months,” Afolami said at the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Asset Summit. Stablecoins are digital tokens that are tied to other assets like fiat currencies.

He also plans to outline what the next steps could be later on in the year.

An election is expected to occur in the second half of this year, leaving little time for the current ruling party, the Conservatives, to implement all of the crypto measures they promised. Afolami said last month that the Government planned to issue new legislation for stablecoins, staking as well as crypto custody and exchanges by July.

The Conservatives have said they want the U.K. to be a crypto hub and the government ushered in new legislation for crypto to be treated like a regulated activity last year. They have consulted on a phased approach to regulating crypto, starting with stablecoins.

Recently, the Conservative party faced a blow as local election results indicated a large swing towards Labour. Labour managed to attain 1,158 local councilor seats and gained 186, whereas the Conservatives only attained 515 councilor seats and lost 474, falling behind the Liberal Democrat party, according to BBC data.