The Bank of England is considering pausing the digital pound plan and shifting to a wait-and-see approach regarding private tokenization innovations

According to Bloomberg, the UK Treasury and the Bank of England are discussing slowing down the progress of the "Britcoin" digital pound project, with the "advance or halt" decision originally scheduled for this summer possibly being changed to a temporary pause.

Sources say that regulators want to first observe the progress of banks in areas such as tokenized deposits, as these private innovations may achieve some similar rapid low-cost payment functions to CBDCs or stablecoins within the existing regulatory framework. The digital pound is currently nearing the end of its design phase, but it faces public, parliamentary, and some officials' doubts regarding privacy, necessity, and its impact on the commercial banking system. Internal research from the Bank of England also shows that as digital payment methods improve, the marginal benefits of launching a retail CBDC are declining.