What the Digital Pound Lab is actually testingPhase 2 of the Lab, which runs approximately from November 2025 to July 2026, is designed to examine how private stablecoins and a central bank digital currency might interact in real-world payment scenarios. The second explores cross-border trade finance flows, testing invoice factoring scenarios where a digital pound and stablecoins would need to work together across jurisdictions. The stablecoin interoperability questionThe most consequential piece of this experiment may be the interoperability testing between stablecoins and a simulated digital pound. Small businesses account for the vast majority of firms in most economies but remain chronically underserved by trade finance. The global trade finance gap, the difference between what SMEs need and what banks provide, runs into the trillions of dollars.