Another entrant into the stablecoin market has emerged this week with The London Block Exchange (LBX) announcing its new virtual currency linked to the UK pound.

LBX is proud to announce the worlds first GBP backed stablecoin!#LBXPeg https://t.co/lvOf2UaYDk — LBX, The London Block Exchange (@LBXSocial) September 30, 2018

According to LBX’s CEO Benjamin Dives, the LBX-Peg coin, which has already been nicknamed the “cryptopound” will be backed by reserves of Pound Sterling and will be minted within the next ten days.

UNDISCLOSED BANKING PARTNER

The identity of the company’s banking partner remains undisclosed, with LBX claiming that the bank that will be responsible for holding the necessary one-to-one reserves to underpin the value of its new coin.

A London-based cryptocurrency exchange that opened in November last year, LBX provides Over The Counter (OTC) trading services as well as an educational College of Crypto department to teach newcomers about the industry.

In a blog post LBX explained the “cryptopound” will initially be an ERC-621 token on the Ethereum blockchain but may “…also be issued on other blockchains where compliance controls can be maintained.”

Speaking in an interview with Business Insider, Benjamin Dives said “The primary use case will be settlement for OTC trades in the London market, then commonwealth exchanges where they don’t have fiat banking, and then securities tokens who want to pay dividends in a cryptopound.”

The stablecoin market is certainly proving popular as the latest publication from blockchain.com proves. In its State of Stablecoins report, it claims that there are now approximately 57 fiat-backed crypto-coins in existence – although only 39% of these currently have any kind of circulation.

Some stablecoins – notably Tether – have aroused controversy in recent months, with some critics raising concerns around auditability and trust. Tether itself was delisted by Digifinex in mid-September.