The Regulatory Sandbox programme allows firms to trial stablecoin products in real world conditions with appropriate safeguards. It will help the FCA assess its proposed policy in a live environment and ensure future rules are clear, effective and support responsible innovation.

The FCA’s testing will primarily focus on stablecoin issuance. The four selected firms’ proposals represent a range of stablecoin use cases, including payments, wholesale settlement and crypto trading. Each firm will receive feedback from FCA specialists while helping to shape the UK’s regulatory approach.

Matthew Long, director of payments and digital assets at the FCA said: “We are supporting UK stablecoin issuers to ensure they can be trusted for payments, settlement and trading. It will benefit consumers and financial transactions and help to deliver the FCA’s strategy and the Government’s National Payments Vision.”

The testing is part of the FCA’s broader work to enable innovation across UK financial services and complements other innovation initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).

Testing begins in early 2026 and the findings will help shape the UK’s final stablecoin rules later in 2026.