Image credit: open access government 

 

The United States Department of the Treasury and the United Kingdom's HM Treasury have jointly released a framework outlining recommendations to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

 

Although the report is not solely about cryptocurrencies, the framework focuses on the broader digitalization of the financial sector, including stablecoins, tokenized financial assets, and digital market infrastructure.

 

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the recommendations, which build on the longstanding relationship between the U.S. and U.K. financial markets, aim to reduce unnecessary friction hindering economic ties between the two countries while identifying opportunities to enhance cross-border capital raising, strengthen supervisory cooperation, and provide greater clarity for tokenized financial activity.

 

Regarding the goal of the Transatlantic Taskforce, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "The Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future reflects the strength and depth of U.S. and UK markets and our shared commitment to fostering economic growth and advancing global standards that reward innovation and competition."

 

Following the Taskforce's recommendations, the United States and the United Kingdom released a joint statement on stablecoins. The statement reaffirmed both countries' shared commitment to well-regulated stablecoins as a tool for financial innovation.

 

The two countries also emphasized the need for stablecoins to be fully backed on a one-to-one basis by high-quality liquid assets, with strong safeguards for reserves, consumer protection, timely redemption, and financial stability.

 

The Transatlantic Taskforce's release of the policy report comes shortly after the U.K. government published its first tokenized finance roadmap. The report, developed alongside task forces from 54 major financial institutions, including BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs, focuses on scaling tokenization through initiatives such as the issuance of tokenized government bonds, tokenized repo and collateral markets, and stablecoin-enabled settlement.

 

The report projects that tokenizing wholesale financial markets could add up to £33 billion in annual GDP and £14 billion in tax revenue by 2035.

 

About the U.S.-UK Transatlantic Taskforce

 

The U.S. UK Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future was established by HM Treasury and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, in September 2025.

 

The task force was established to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries, enabling them to explore collaboration in capital markets and digital assets, including stablecoins and tokenization.

 

In addition to HM Treasury and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the task force works with regulators from both countries, including the Financial Conduct Authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, specifically the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has frozen $344 million in USDT allegedly linked to Iran.

 

In a Friday post on X, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the crypto seizure. The move, according to Bessent, is part of the U.S. effort to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.

 

 

“We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime,” Bessent wrote.

 

While the announcement from Bessent confirmed the freeze and the imposition of sanctions on the owners of the wallets involved, the technical action of the freeze itself was carried out by stablecoin issuer Tether. The stablecoin issuer had earlier stated that it was supporting OFAC and law enforcement agencies in freezing the $344 million linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Hezbollah militant group.

 

Following the announcement, Tether blacklisted two specific wallet addresses on the Tron blockchain, holding $213 million and $131 million in USDT respectively. This move by the U.S. Department of the Treasury follows a similar action in February, when OFAC sanctioned more than 30 individuals and entities allegedly linked to Iran’s oil shipping network.

 

Tether Expands Blockchain Development Efforts

Tether has consistently pushed forward with innovative blockchain developments. Just this month, it launched tether.wallet, its self custodial wallet that brings Tether’s global financial infrastructure within reach of those who have been left unbanked by the traditional financial system.

 

In an effort to enhance the utility of its stablecoins, Tether last month invested 5.2 million dollars into Ark Labs, supporting the building of Arkade, an infrastructure layer that brings programmable, instant transactions directly to the Bitcoin network. Through the Arkade network being built by Arkade Labs, we might see the introduction of stablecoins, including USDT, into Bitcoin.

 

Tether, for the first time, expanded USAT, its US regulated stablecoin, to the Celo blockchain. Since Celo is an Ethereum Layer 2 network optimized for payments, the expansion of USAT to Celo enabled the integration of USAT into Opera MiniPay and Google Cloud infrastructure.