Can contracts in England be settled without cash? Legal tender rules, asset transfers and stablecoin payments explained

The flexibility of English law in recognising asset-based settlement is not new. During the late seventeenth century, financial reformers proposed the creation of a National Land Bank that would issue circulating credit backed by real estate rather than bullion. Although the project ultimately failed, historians regard it as part of England’s broader “Financial Revolution”, which included the successful founding of the Bank of England in 1694. This episode in history illustrates longstanding experimentation with transforming illiquid assets into transferable payment instruments.

Source: Teamblockchain

Under English law, the Freedom of Contract enables parties to agree the method by which contractual obligations will be discharged, “without regulation from the State”. Settlement of obligations does not require payment in legal tender unless specifically mandated by statute or contractual terms. The concept of legal tender has limited application; as explained by the Bank of England, lega…