UK Tokenisation Drive
UK Accelerates Tokenisation Initiative with 54 Firms, Eyeing Billions in Economic Output
Key Points
Boston Consulting Group estimates the global market for tokenised real-world assets could reach $88 trillion by 2035, underscoring a scale far larger than today’s crypto market.
Participants include Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple among the 54 firms, highlighting involvement from major digital-asset players alongside traditional banks and asset managers.
Industry framing of tokenisation as a 'network game' emphasizes that London must move quickly to keep pace with more agile jurisdictions or risk losing leadership in global markets.
A Woolard-led UK report emphasizes an open-for-business stance, describing the UK as open to innovation and investment and determined to stay at the forefront of global financial markets.
The inaugural Wholesale Digital Markets report outlines actions to scale tokenisation—such as building secondary markets and tokenising collateral—within the broader DIGIT framework.
The UK government has assembled 54 of the world's largest financial firms — including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley — into a tokenisation task force aimed at rewiring wholesale financial markets, according to Cryptopolitan. The group will spend the next year running live tests, starting with a tokenised repo trial planned for spring 2027.
UK officials say the push could add up to £33 billion a year to economic output and generate around £14 billion in annual tax revenue by 2035, BeInCrypto reported. Christopher Woolard of HM Treasury is leading the effort, backed by the City of London Corporation.
54 Firms Sign On for a Year-Long Tokenisation Drive
The task force spans traditional banks, asset managers, and digital-asset firms. Alongside Wall Street giants, it includes Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple, according to Cryptopolitan. HSBC and UBS are also on the list. The broad mix signals that both old-school finance and crypto-native companies are betting on the same infrastructure shift.
Tokenisation means turning real assets — like bonds or loans — into digital tokens on a blockchain. Those tokens can be transferred and settled faster and cheaper than today's systems allow. The task force will test this idea in live markets, not just on paper. Its first target is the repo market, where banks lend cash overnight using securities as collateral, Yahoo Finance reported.
An $88 Trillion Global Prize Drives the Urgency
Boston Consulting Group estimates the global market for tokenised real-world assets could hit $88 trillion by 2035, according to Crypto Economy. That figure dwarfs the entire current crypto market. For context, today's tokenised asset market is still measured in the billions.
Industry leaders frame this as a 'network game.' The more firms that join a shared tokenisation system, the more valuable it becomes for everyone. That logic is why London wants to move fast. Jurisdictions that build the rails first tend to keep the traffic — and the fees — for decades.
UK Builds a Full Digital Finance Stack Around the Push
The task force sits inside a wider UK digital finance plan. That plan includes DIGIT — the Digital Gilt instrument, which would be the UK's first tokenised government bond — and the Digital Securities Sandbox, a testing ground for new rules, BeInCrypto reported. Together, they form a framework for moving the whole market, not just one asset class.
The inaugural Wholesale Digital Markets report, led by Woolard, outlines specific steps: building secondary markets for tokenised assets and tokenising collateral to free up capital. The report describes the UK as 'open to innovation and investment' and committed to staying 'at the forefront of global financial markets,' Yahoo Finance noted.
Can London Keep Up With Faster-Moving Rivals?
Speed is the central worry. Other jurisdictions — including Singapore and parts of the EU — have already launched live tokenised asset programs. The UK is catching up, not leading, on some fronts. Critics have also pointed out that existing UK projects like Fnality and Finteum, which are already operational, received little attention in early strategy documents.
Still, 54 firms committing to a shared, government-backed program is a significant show of force. Yahoo Finance reported that the task force will work on use cases across UK and other financial markets over the coming year. If the repo pilot succeeds by spring 2027, it could open the door to tokenising a much wider range of assets — from corporate bonds to trade finance.
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