Blockchain.com adds British Pound support ahead of  Brexit

A cryptocurrency wallet provider,  Blockchain.com, now allows users to withdraw money in British Pounds (GBP). The company added a payment gateway for this fiat currency to its recently launched cryptocurrency exchange, The Pit.

The company enabled the U.K. Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) that allows instantly depositing and withdrawing funds in GBP. Currently, The Pit users can buy and sell only tow cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH); however, the company plans to add more coins in the nearest future. 

Faster Payments Scheme has been launched to reduce the processing time between the customers of different banks from three business days to several seconds. 

The representatives of  Blockchain.com explained that they added FPS support because the users from the U.K. are among the most active segments that registered the biggest number of first-time deposits. The company believes that the growing interest in cryptocurrencies in the U.K. may have something to do with the looming Brexit. 

The U.K.’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is determined to pull the country from the E.U. on Jan. 31.

Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain.com, commented:

It’s imperative for us to provide the British people...new options to insulate their financial futures from the political scuffles that have destabilized the country’s economy. 

Earlier this year, the company launched a cryptocurrency lending service. According to the official data, it has already processed loans to the tune of $1.6 billion.