USDC will appear on Chelsea's jersey

Circle closes a sponsorship deal as the UK and Singapore shift their positions

Caio Barbosa

Founder & CO-CEO

Forbes Under 30. One of the leading voices in Fintech & Crypto in Brazil. Writes weekly about stablecoins, payments, and the future of financial infrastructure in Latin America.

Cover image for Lumx blog article: USDC will appear on Chelsea's jersey

Stablecoins have arrived at one of the most visible advertising spaces in world sport, in a deal that brings the category closer to a mass audience. Off the pitch, the week belonged to regulators changing their stance. The UK and Singapore announced meaningful changes for those who issue or distribute stablecoins. And in infrastructure, American community banks organized to build a shared network, while a European neobank launched its euro stablecoin.

Reading time: 7 minutes

Circle will put USDC on Chelsea's jersey

In brief:

Circle will sponsor Chelsea, with the USDC brand on the front of shirts for the 2026/2027 season
Circle UK Trading Limited has been FCA-authorized since 2018, and USDC is legal to use in the UK
The company categorizes the deal as brand building, not financial promotion

Circle announced the sponsorship on Friday, roughly three months after the FCA sent warning letters to Premier League clubs. Context matters: those letters addressed unauthorized firms using sports sponsorships to reach fans, and Circle UK Trading Limited has been listed as authorized by the regulator since 2018, a different situation from the one that prompted the warning.

The nuance lies elsewhere. As Circle itself highlights, USDC is issued by regulated affiliates, but not under UK law, which is why the company treats the deal as brand image. That is a distinction the market should watch as the FCA implements, from October 2027, new standards for digital asset firms and stablecoin issuers. In the meantime, the front-of-shirt space at a global club signals a clear bet on mass reach, alongside an audience that is still getting to know the product.

The Bank of England has been given a legal duty to foster payments innovation

In brief:

HM Treasury will give the Bank of England a secondary statutory objective to support innovation in payments and digital money
The change comes as an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, arriving in the House of Lords in September
The central bank will report annually to parliament on progress toward this objective

The Treasury announced the creation of the secondary objective, subordinate to the primary responsibility of financial stability. City Minister Lucy Rigby stated that the measure supports the bank in continuing to drive innovation in payments and digital finance.

Making innovation a legal obligation, with annual accountability to parliament, changes the political cost of caution at an institution designed to say no. Pressure from the sector had already produced results in June, when the bank abandoned per-holder limits for sterling tokens, adopted a £40 billion issuance cap, and reduced the share of reserves required to be held as non-interest-bearing deposits at the central bank. Applications from systemic sterling stablecoin issuers are expected to open before year-end.

Singapore studies recognizing stablecoins issued outside the country

In brief:

MAS proposed that stablecoins jointly issued by a local and a foreign issuer could be brought within the regulatory framework
The regulator is considering recognizing a limited number of foreign stablecoins regulated under comparable regimes, targeted at wholesale cross-border transactions
The proposals revisit the 2023 position, which required issuance exclusively in Singapore

MAS opened a public consultation on amendments to the Payment Services Act, with a comment deadline of October 16. Only licensed issuers will be permitted to label their tokens as "MAS-regulated stablecoins."

In 2023, MAS restricted the framework to local issuance, citing difficulty establishing regulatory equivalence, the complexity of tracking commingled tokens, and uncertainty around reserves held abroad. The stated trigger for reopening the question is cross-border use, which reduces the need to maintain a separate stablecoin in each jurisdiction. The consultation also proposes a prohibition on interest payments, stress testing, recovery and orderly wind-down plans, and protection of customer funds prior to issuance.

American community banks to build their own blockchain

In brief:

Thirty-nine state banking associations formed the BankChain Alliance, a shared blockchain network for community and regional banks
The proposal covers tokenized deposits, stablecoins, programmable payments, and automated settlement, with a planned launch in 2027
The alliance has not yet chosen a technology provider or defined the architecture, blockchain, or participating banks

The alliance announced the initiative with governance modeled on the Federal Home Loan Bank system, in which participating banks direct the network. Kathy Kraninger, interim president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, emphasized a network built and owned by the industry itself.

The move addresses the problem of banks that lack their own tokenized deposit arm, like the one HSBC and Standard Chartered used in the first live transaction on SWIFT's ledger. Rather than building individually or depending on correspondents, the proposal is to mutualize the infrastructure. The risk lies in the current stage: with no provider, architecture, or participating banks yet defined, and a two-year runway, the consortium still has execution to prove.

Revolut launches EURR, its euro stablecoin

In brief:

EURR went live for selected customers in Denmark, Poland, and Portugal, in a gradual rollout
Issuance is by Bridge Building S.A., a Bridge subsidiary licensed in Luxembourg, which also custodies and manages the reserves
Revolut acts as distributor, via a regulated subsidiary in Cyprus under MiCA

Revolut announced the first concrete product from a plan communicated more than a year ago. EURR runs on multiple blockchains, works with external wallets, and is integrated into the retail app, with expansion across the EEA and to other currencies planned for this year.

The division of roles is the point of interest: the issuer is Bridge, acquired by Stripe for $1.1 billion, while Revolut handles distribution to its base of 80 million customers. It is the path for fintechs to offer stablecoins without becoming regulated issuers themselves. The European context remains challenging, with the ECB pointing to structural weaknesses in stablecoins and Brussels preparing a MiCA review in 2027 to reach foreign issuers.

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