Polygon has been selected to participate in the Bank of England's Digital Pound Lab Phase 2, joining NOBO and Dun & Bradstreet in testing stablecoin settlement and cross-border payments infrastructure. The blockchain network will provide smart contract and settlement capabilities for the initiative.
Phase 2 of the Digital Pound Lab focuses on specific trade finance use cases. The consortium will test dual-currency invoice factoring and reusable business identity systems for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the company announcement.
Polygon's role centers on its work building the Open Money Stack, a framework designed for digital currency and stablecoin infrastructure. The network has positioned itself as settlement layer for central bank digital currencies and tokenized finance. NOBO, a fintech focused on SME credit, leads the workstream for commercial credit profiles. Dun & Bradstreet contributes commercial intelligence and business data capabilities to the project.
The Bank of England has been testing digital pound infrastructure through lab phases since 2023, exploring use cases beyond retail payments. The Digital Pound Lab moved into Phase 2 after demonstrating technical feasibility in earlier work. The Bank of England continues examination of distributed ledger infrastructure for settlement and cross-border transactions, though it has not committed to issuing a retail digital currency.
Polygon's inclusion comes as demand expands among infrastructure providers to shape central bank digital currency design. The network has previously worked on tokenization projects and stablecoin settlement in Europe. The Digital Pound Lab participants test capabilities but do not represent endorsement of either Polygon's technology or a digital pound issuance by the Bank of England.
The number of private-sector participants in central bank digital currency pilots has expanded significantly since 2024, with consortiums now including blockchain platforms alongside traditional finance and technology firms. The addition of Polygon marks at least the third major blockchain protocol selected for official Bank of England infrastructure testing.
The test outcomes will determine whether cross-border stablecoin settlement and trade finance use cases advance to production infrastructure. If Phase 2 produces working demonstrations of invoice factoring and SME identity systems by early 2027, the Bank of England may expand testing to larger transaction volumes.
