Ripple joined 54 major financial and technology companies in a UK government-backed taskforce aimed at advancing large-scale tokenisation of wholesale financial markets. The group’s inclusion was formalized on July 13, 2026, as the Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion delivered his inaugural report to the Chancellor. This milestone enables industry stakeholders to accelerate the transition from controlled pilots to fully regulated digital markets.
Taskforce structure and key participants
The taskforce is overseen by Chris Woolard CBE, the current Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, who assumed the role after his tenure as chair of the Financial Conduct Authority. The administration is provided by the City of London Corporation, with backing from The City UK, UK Finance, the Investment Association, and Innovate Finance.
A diverse range of institutions participates in the 54-member group, including global banks such as J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds, and Standard Chartered. Leading asset managers like BlackRock, Fidelity, Schroders, State Street, and a variety of infrastructure providers such as LSEG, Euroclear, Clearstream, DTCC, ICE, and Cboe are involved. Digital asset firms, including Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Fireblocks, Chainalysis, Ava Labs, and Ripple, contribute expertise from both traditional and emerging market sectors.
The first implementation phase over 12 months will center on live use cases, beginning with tokenised repo — a system through which institutions borrow cash by pledging collateral. Nine Action Groups will address key areas: primary issuance (including the proposed Digital Gilt Instrument DIGIT), tokenised collateral, funds, payment rails, legal certainty, interoperability, AML compliance, tax policy, and resilience.
Implications for blockchain market infrastructure
For the digital assets industry, the group’s formation marks a decisive move towards bringing real-world market activity on chain. The initiative covers settlement, collateral transfer, and issuance for instruments like funds, bonds, and repos — not only the underlying tokenomics. Ripple, recognized for its payments network and XRP Ledger, is positioned as a core infrastructure provider. Its recent $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road, now operating as Ripple Prime with UK FCA registration, highlights its increasing institutional footprint. Santander UK’s adoption of Ripple infrastructure for white-label solutions further demonstrates this integration.
Onchain funds, bonds and repos are emerging as mainstream solutions, already delivering cheaper, faster, and more efficient financial instruments compared to legacy systems. Economic analysis projects that widespread tokenisation in the UK could contribute £33 billion annually to economic output and raise £14 billion in tax receipts by 2035, according to findings from Barclays and PwC.
This pivot is reinforced by the growing demand for blockchain-native delivery and settlement infrastructure. In the past year, the volume of tokenised assets on the XRP Ledger increased from $150 million to nearly $4 billion, with over 500 institutional products in active operation.
The path forward and regulatory focus
To further streamline capital markets, the report cited analysis from Boston Consulting Group that projects global real-world asset tokenisation to reach $88 trillion by 2035 — far surpassing anticipated crypto and stablecoin market sizes. The group’s recommendations emphasize a hybrid network approach where permissioned institutional frameworks intersect with open, permissionless chains to provide broad liquidity, as seen in BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenised fund on Ethereum via Securitize. However, chain reorganisations on public blockchains remain a settlement risk that traditional infrastructure avoids.
The ongoing transformation is part of a broader industry trend as Wall Street pivots towards Web3. Investors are increasingly exploring platforms such as 1stepSwap, which enable holdings of major U.S. equities, gold, and silver in their crypto wallets. This evolution in tokenising real-world assets (RWAs) and instant price discovery removes the need for traditional brokers, further streamlining market access and efficiency.
The expansion of tokenisation presents challenges for regulators. Authorities will need to address questions related to legal certainty, anti-money laundering compliance, tax treatment, and technology standards. Chris Woolard highlighted the importance of rapid action to maintain UK competitiveness, stating that delays could result in critical liquidity forming outside the country. Action Group milestones include live tokenised repo pilots by spring 2027, progress toward issuing the country’s first tokenised gilt – the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) – during the first quarter of 2027, along with publishing industry standards for secure market operations.
Should the UK successfully implement these measures, the resulting framework is expected to serve as a blueprint for G7 nations navigating wholesale market tokenisation and integrating blockchain-native firms with incumbent financial infrastructure.
