Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their contributions. This has been an interesting debate. There are a lot of questions on this and I will do my best to answer them—I have been making notes. I may not get to respond to them all but, if I do not, as before, I will scour through Hansard and respond accordingly. I welcome what the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, said about this going in the right direction, although there might be one or two problems—a wrinkle—that the department will probably look at and try to iron out, if they exist. We welcome the feedback. This SI enables the FCA, we believe, to respond nimbly to emerging demands. This is an area of continuing development. We will keep the regime under review, but we are not proposing to alter the instrument at this stage of the legislative programme. Stablecoin and bitcoin are treated the same. It is right to note the difference between stablecoin and other more volatile crypto assets and to recognise the potential for stablecoin to play a significant role in payments. While stablecoin and other crypto assets are different in some ways, they share many characteristics and, therefore, risks. Regulating stablecoin in line with other crypto assets is, in many circumstances, the right approach. For example, firms dealing in or safeguarding stablecoin should be subject to similar rules as those for firms dealing in or safeguarding other crypto assets.