Last Updated on August 15, 2026 by TMB
US-based blockchain company Polygon has been tapped to help develop the UK’s official Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Dubbed the ‘digital pound’, it will expand the use of crypto assets in the UK, with government support. As the project enters its second phase, Polygon has come on board.
This represents not only a major win for Polygon itself but also reignites the conversation around CBDCs and how the UK will play a role.
How Polygon Comes In
The first phase of the digital pound development, backed by the Bank of England, was completed between August and November 2025. That was focused on testing a small number of use cases to determine whether CBDCs have practical application for UK citizens.
The Bank of England has reiterated that the Lab is not a sandbox and that no actual UK citizens are participating in the test or using their own funds. In total, 12 industry stakeholders have been invited for phase 2.
This latest round, which includes Polygon, NOBO Finance and Dun & Bradstreet as part of that dozen, is more so looking at whether “a stablecoin and a digital pound can settle the same cross-border payment, in the same flow, without either side waiting on the other”.
An SME credit profile will be created for this purpose, which leverages Polygon’s smart contract system, Open Money Stack’s orchestration layer, and Dun & Bradstreet’s verified business identity and credit data. As far as the blockchain company is concerned, this is a win-win, as it gets the chance to test out its infrastructure with digital pound mechanics while having the financial and logistical cost borne by the Bank of England.
More details are expected to be announced as the second phase progresses and we get closer to the release of the digital pound.
The State of CBDCs
For years, CBDCs have been one of the most anticipated applications of cryptocurrency. Because they are government-backed, many in the blockchain space believe they will drive widespread acceptance and adoption.
The great CBDC race has been on for years, with different countries at different levels of progress. China, for example, has been using its digital yuan for years on a large scale and is even looking into launching interest-bearing products for it. The digital euro is also fast in development, with a pilot planned for late 2027. Needless to say, the digital pound is in good company.
The only major outlier is the United States, as not only is there no digital dollar in development, but President Donald Trump has outright banned their development so far. In the next few years, we could end up in a situation where all the major world currencies have working CBDCs except for the US.
