The UK government has assembled a 54-member industry task force to advance the adoption of tokenization within the country’s wholesale financial markets. The group brings together major crypto firms including Circle, Ripple, and Coinbase alongside leading global financial players such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley.
Task force goals and structure
Chris Woolard, who took on the role of HM Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion in April 2026 after serving as interim chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), introduced the task force in his first official report to Chancellor Rachel Reeves on July 13. The City of London Corporation is coordinating the task force, working with organizations such as TheCityUK, UK Finance, the Investment Association, and Innovate Finance.
The task force aims to build and deliver live, end-to-end use cases, starting with tokenized repo transactions over the next 12 months. Nine action groups within the task force will establish standards across priority segments of the market value chain.
The investor-oriented division of the City of London Corporation, The Global City, indicated that the first live trial of the repo use case is expected by spring 2027, with expansion to commodities and other asset classes under consideration later in the year.
Integration of crypto and traditional finance
The task force’s extensive roster goes beyond Wall Street institutions. Included on the stakeholder list are crypto and blockchain companies such as Circle, Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken’s Payward entity, Chainalysis, Fireblocks, Ctrl Alt, Digital Asset Holdings (the team behind the Canton Network), GFO-X, Ubyx, SLIX, Tokenovate, and Wintermute.
These firms will work alongside major financial institutions like HSBC, Barclays, UBS, Citi, State Street, the London Stock Exchange Group, and DTCC.
By bringing stablecoin issuers and cryptocurrency exchanges together with established banking giants, the initiative seeks to bridge the traditional and digital financial infrastructure often viewed as competitors.
Kirit Bhatia, chief digital assets officer at Banking Circle, noted that “the harder problem is plumbing, not issuance,” adding that payment infrastructure must support real-time settlement, cross-border movement, regulated money forms, and interoperability among stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and fiat payment systems.
Bhatia emphasized that “without it, digital assets risk becoming faster at the edges but still constrained by the legacy plumbing underneath.”
Mini dictionary: Tokenized repo, a form of repurchase agreement transaction that uses blockchain technology to tokenize the securities and cash flows, aims to improve speed, transparency, and efficiency compared to traditional repo markets.
Economic impact and projections
Woolard’s report references a forecast from Boston Consulting Group that projects the tokenized real-world asset market could reach $88 trillion by 2035, compared to approximately $3 trillion in the current crypto and stablecoin market.
| Metric | Current Value (2026) | Projected Value (2035) |
|---|---|---|
| Total crypto and stablecoin market | $3 trillion | – |
| Tokenized real-world asset market | – | $88 trillion |
| UK additional annual economic output | – | £33 billion |
| UK annual tax revenue | – | £14 billion |
For the UK, the report anticipates a potential annual economic boost of up to £33 billion and an additional £14 billion in annual tax revenue by 2035.
Woolard characterized the competition between regions as “a network game” and cautioned that the UK’s leadership in the digital asset sector is not guaranteed. He suggested that the country “must move at the speed of the most agile players.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that maintaining the UK’s lead in global finance will require “harnessing technologies like tokenisation,” while City of London Corporation Policy Chairman Chris Hayward described the initiative as an opportunity to “lead a digital Big Bang in financial services.”
Next steps for the initiative
The task force’s work builds on previous projects, including DIGIT, the UK’s Digital Gilt instrument, a tokenized form of government bond. The first DIGIT is projected to launch in the first quarter of 2027 within the Bank of England and FCA’s Digital Securities Sandbox.
Feedback on Woolard’s report is open until September 4, 2026. Final membership for the nine action groups is scheduled to be confirmed by the end of September, with a second report to the Chancellor set for July 2027.
