Barclays buys into stablecoin-settlement company Ubyx

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Barclays has bought a stake in U.S. stablecoin-settlement company Ubyx, its first such investment and part of its plans to explore "new forms of digital money", the British bank said on Wednesday.

Ubyx, which launched in 2025, is a clearing system for stablecoins - cryptocurrencies pegged 1:1 to mainstream currencies - which aims to reconcile tokens created by different issuers.

Various banks and other financial institutions have announced plans involving stablecoins in the past year, as soaring crypto prices and U.S. President Donald Trump's support for the sector revived interest in using blockchain in the mainstream financial system, for example by issuing stablecoins or creating blockchain-based tokens to represent financial assets. Still, many banks' blockchain-related projects remain in the early stages.

Barclays said in a statement that it and Ubyx were committed to developing "tokenised money within the regulatory perimeter". Barclays was one of 10 banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, which in October said they had formed a group to explore the possibility of jointly issuing a stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies.

“This investment aligns with Barclays’ approach to explore opportunities based on new forms of digital money, such as stablecoins," a spokesperson for the bank said.

Barclays declined to make public the size of its investment or the valuation, but said that it was its first investment in a stablecoin-related company. The venture capital arms of U.S. crypto companies Coinbase and Galaxy Digital have also previously invested in Ubyx, according to PitchBook.

The number of stablecoins has surged in recent years, led by El Salvador-based Tether with $187 billion worth of tokens in circulation. Stablecoins are mostly used for moving money within crypto markets.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Kirsten Donovan)