UK opens a major loophole for stablecoin payments while clamping down on crypto lending

HM Treasury has laid the final draft of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026, which would narrow parts of the UK’s forthcoming crypto regulatory perimeter for UK qualifying stablecoin payments.The draft instrument, laid before Parliament on Sept. 15, would remove qualifying transfers from the rules for dealing as principal, dealing as agent and arranging deals. It has not been made and is not in force.The relief is narrower than a blanket exemption for sterling stablecoins. A UK qualifying stablecoin must be issued through the regulated article 9M activity by a firm holding the relevant permission. An overseas-issued token, or a coin that merely tracks sterling, would not qualify on that basis alone.Sending a UK qualifying stablecoin to another person could fall outside the dealer perimeter. So could exchanging it for money or another UK qualifying stablecoin.The boundary changes when the transaction resembles financing or crypto trading. If the recipient has a right or obligation to return the stablecoin later, the transfer does not receive the basic exclusion, leaving ordinary lending or borrowing potentially regul...