The UK stablecoin perimeter HM Treasury has proposed to move, but has not yet moved
The instrument everyone reads, and the draft nobody prices in
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/102, is the instrument that builds the UK cryptoasset perimeter. Regulation 1(2) provides that, subject to paragraph (3), the Regulations come into force on 25th October 2027, which the instrument itself calls the full commencement day. Regulation 1(3) has already brought parts of it into force, 21 days after making, so that the FCA can make rules and so that applications can be made and determined well ahead of that date.
Sitting alongside it since 21 April 2026 is a second document that far fewer firms have read: the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, published by HM Treasury with a policy note, with comments invited to close of business on Friday 22 May 2026. The draft still carries the placeholder heading 2026 No. 000. If you are mapping a stablecoin distribution business against SI 2026/102 alone, you are mapping it against a perimeter that HM Treasury has already proposed to move.
What draft article 9Z10A would exclude
The draft inserts a new article 9Z10A into the Regulated Activities Order. Its operative limb, as drafted, excludes activity comprising or related to:
- the transfer of a relevant qualifying stablecoin to another person;
- the exchange of a relevant qualifying stablecoin for another asset, including money or another relevant qualifying stablecoin.
Those words are draft instrument text, not enacted law. HM Treasury's policy note describes the intended effect in plainer terms: UK-issued qualifying stablecoins would come out of the perimeter for dealing in qualifying cryptoassets as principal, dealing in qualifying cryptoassets as agent, and arranging deals in qualifying cryptoassets. The stated rationale is to avoid stablecoin payment providers needing two authorisations before the wider payments reforms conclude.
The draft is not limited to that one article. It also adds a new dealing exclusion at article 9UA and a carve-out at article 9R(4) covering recognised central securities depository nominee arrangements, and it defers the commencement of regulations 43 and 47 of SI 2026/102.
What it would not touch
Two limits matter more than the exclusion itself.
- Lending and borrowing stay in. The policy note is explicit that lending and borrowing activity involving UK-issued qualifying stablecoins remains regulated. A firm that transfers stablecoins and also lends against them does not become unregulated.
- Safeguarding is untouched. Article 9N is not disapplied. Its full statutory name is safeguarding of qualifying cryptoassets and relevant specified investment cryptoassets, and a firm that holds client stablecoins still needs that permission whatever happens to dealing and arranging. Every published summary that shortens 9N to safeguarding also drops the second half of its scope.
Financial promotions move with the perimeter
The draft makes matching changes to the financial promotion regime, inserting a new article 73ZAA into the Financial Promotion Order and adding a controlled activity 7ZA and a controlled investment 26G to its Schedule 1. The policy note states that transactions involving UK-issued qualifying stablecoins and no other cryptoassets would not be subject to the financial promotions regime, with the exception of lending and borrowing arrangements.
Status, and why it changes your filing date calculation
As at 24 August 2026 we can find no made version of the amending instrument on legislation.gov.uk, and SI 2026/102 shows no amendments applied. Treat the exclusion as proposed, not law, and check the position again before you rely on it.
That matters because of how the application timetable works. The FCA has given a direction under regulation 52 setting an application period from 9:00am on 30 September 2026 to 11:59pm on 28 February 2027. Those dates are not in the SI. And nothing closes on 28 February: regulation 52(5) provides that a direction under paragraph (1) does not prevent applications for a relevant cryptoasset permission being made outside the relevant application period. What ends is eligibility for the regulation 53 saving, and the FCA has said it will not expedite a late application. The correct phrase is that the window for the saving closes.
So a stablecoin distributor is choosing between applying for permissions that may be withdrawn from the perimeter before commencement, and not applying, losing the regulation 53 saving, and depending on an unmade instrument.
A workable way to plan
- Map your activities twice, once against SI 2026/102 as made and once against the draft, and identify which permissions exist only in the first mapping.
- Do not let safeguarding drop out of either map.
- Separate lending and borrowing from transfer and exchange in your permission analysis, because the draft treats them differently.
- Re-check whether the amending instrument has been made before you file, and again before you publish anything to customers about your regulatory status.
The checklist behind this article
The UK gateway checklist is a readiness document for the regime as it currently stands: every item cited to the article or regulation number behind it, every figure marked according to whether it is instrument text or reporting of it, and the open questions, including this draft instrument, marked as open rather than resolved. USD 149, with the updated edition free as the position develops.
If your activity map is straightforward, and for most firms it is, the checklist is enough on its own. If you sit across stablecoin distribution and lending, or across tokenised securities and safeguarding, where the draft instrument and article 9N pull in different directions, the 48-hour gap check exists for that.