HM Treasury on July 13 unveiled a 54-firm public-private taskforce to scale tokenization across UK wholesale financial markets, projecting £33 billion ($44 billion) in annual economic output and £14 billion in additional tax revenue by 2035. The consortium — spanning BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman ...
"Put simply, tokenised markets are fundamental to the future of financial services. Like all network games, it is a race and one where the UK needs to move at the speed of the most agile players if we want to ensure we have a stake in developing the approach for international markets." — Christopher Woolard CBE, HM Treasury Wholesale Digital Markets Champion
HM Treasury on July 13 unveiled a 54-firm public-private taskforce to scale tokenization across UK wholesale financial markets, projecting £33 billion ($44 billion) in annual economic output and £14 billion in additional tax revenue by 2035. The consortium — spanning BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays, HSBC, Circle, Ripple, and Coinbase — will organize into nine action groups targeting a live tokenized repo trial by spring 2027.
The initiative sits at the intersection of three concurrent institutional programs: the FCA's crypto-asset regulatory framework (applications open September 30, 2026), the Bank of England's Digital Securities Sandbox, and the DIGIT pilot to issue the UK's first blockchain-native sovereign gilt. Together, they represent the most comprehensive government-coordinated tokenization effort in any G7 economy.
Boston Consulting Group estimates the global tokenized real-world asset market could reach $88 trillion by 2035. The UK is betting that first-mover coordination among its 54 taskforce members positions London as the primary venue for that migration.
The Wholesale Digital Markets Taskforce comprises 54 institutions drawn from five categories: global banks, asset managers, market infrastructure operators, crypto-native firms, and industry bodies. Christopher Woolard CBE, former interim chair of the Financial Conduct Authority, leads the initiative as HM Treasury's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion.
Named participants by category:
| Category | Firms | |---|---| | Global Banks | JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays, HSBC | | Asset Managers | BlackRock, Fidelity International, Schroders, State Street | | Market Infrastructure | DTCC, Euroclear, London Stock Exchange Group | | Crypto/Digital Asset | Circle, Ripple, Coinbase | | Supporting Bodies | City of London Corporation, TheCityUK, Investment Association, UK Finance, Innovate Finance |
The remaining members have not been publicly identified. Action group membership is due to be finalized by end of September 2026.
The City of London Corporation co-sponsors the initiative. Chris Hayward, the Corporation's Policy Chairman, described it as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead a digital Big Bang in financial services." Chancellor Rachel Reeves stated: "The UK is already a world leader in global finance and keeping that top spot means harnessing technologies like tokenisation."
The taskforce will operate through nine specialized action groups covering the full stack of wholesale market operations:
The near-term priority is tokenized repurchase agreements. The taskforce aims to complete an end-to-end tokenized repo transaction loop — issuance, collateral posting, settlement, and maturity — by spring 2027. Repos were selected because they represent the highest-volume, lowest-risk instrument in wholesale markets, making them the logical entry point for institutional DLT adoption.
Kirit Bhatia of Banking Circle, a taskforce participant, outlined four prerequisites for the repo pilot: real-time settlement, cross-border movement, collateral support, and stablecoin interoperability. Each maps to a specific action group, suggesting the nine-group structure was designed to address the repo pipeline end-to-end.
The taskforce's economic case rests on two sets of projections:
BCG Global Estimate:
UK-Specific Estimates (Conservative and Base Case):
| Scenario | Annual Output Gain | Annual Tax Revenue | |---|---|---| | Base Case | £33 billion ($44 billion) | £14 billion ($19 billion) | | Conservative | £22 billion ($29 billion) | Not disclosed |
These figures assume the UK captures a proportional share of global tokenized market activity, leveraging London's existing position as the world's largest foreign exchange trading center (BIS Triennial Survey) and largest non-US dollar bond market.
It is worth noting that market projections for tokenized assets vary widely. McKinsey, Citi, and Standard Chartered have published smaller estimates ranging from $2 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030, compared to BCG's $16 trillion base case for the same year. The £33 billion UK output figure appears to derive from BCG's more optimistic model. No independent validation of the UK-specific estimate has been published.
Running in parallel with the taskforce, HM Treasury's Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot will test blockchain-native issuance, settlement, and lifecycle management of short-dated UK government bonds. Key parameters:
If successful, the UK would become the first G7 nation to issue sovereign debt natively on distributed ledger infrastructure. The pilot will test whether DLT can handle the full lifecycle: issuance, coupon payments, secondary trading, and redemption.
The DIGIT pilot connects directly to the taskforce's payment infrastructure action group. On-chain settlement of gilts requires tokenized cash — either stablecoins or tokenized deposits — creating a dependency between DIGIT's success and the broader stablecoin regulatory framework being developed by the FCA.
The UK initiative does not exist in isolation. Three major jurisdictions are running parallel tokenization programs:
European Union — ECB Pontes: The European Central Bank approved its Pontes program in July 2025 as a bridge between market DLT platforms and TARGET Services (the ECB's core settlement infrastructure). Pontes links tokenized securities to settlement in central bank money. The pilot launched in Q3 2026 with limited hours; a 24/7 enhanced version is planned by 2028. A longer-term track, Appia, aims for deeper integration.
The EU's approach differs structurally: Pontes is central-bank-led, settling in central bank money directly. The UK taskforce relies on commercial bank deposits and private stablecoins, reflecting London's preference for market-driven solutions over central bank infrastructure.
United States — DTCC Pilot: DTCC launched a tokenization pilot in July 2026 on its $114 trillion custody base, testing tokenized Russell 1000 stocks and Treasuries with BlackRock and Goldman Sachs as participants. The SEC's "Regulation Crypto" framework, currently in comment period, would provide the regulatory architecture for tokenized securities.
Comparative Timeline:
| Jurisdiction | Lead Entity | Primary Focus | Live Trial Target | |---|---|---|---| | UK | HM Treasury Taskforce | Tokenized Repos | Spring 2027 | | EU | ECB (Pontes) | DLT Settlement in Central Bank Money | Q3 2026 (launched) | | US | DTCC | Tokenized Equities & Treasuries | July 2026 (launched) |
The UK's spring 2027 target puts it behind both the EU and US on execution timeline, though the scope — nine action groups, 54 firms, a sovereign debt pilot — is broader than either competing effort.
The taskforce arrives during a period of rapid growth in tokenized assets, though from a small base:
BlackRock's presence on the taskforce carries additional weight given its existing tokenized infrastructure. BUIDL, launched in March 2024, reached $2.4 billion in AUM by Q2 2026. In May 2026, BlackRock filed with the SEC for two new tokenized funds plus on-chain shares for a $7 billion money-market fund.
The gap between current tokenized RWA AUM ($25 billion) and BCG's 2035 projection ($88 trillion) implies a compound annual growth rate exceeding 100% sustained over nine years. Even the more conservative Citi estimate of $5 trillion by 2030 implies approximately 200% CAGR from present levels. These growth rates have no precedent in financial market infrastructure adoption.
54 firms, 9 action groups, 12-month mandate. The UK taskforce is the largest government-coordinated tokenization consortium in any G7 economy. Membership spans banks, asset managers, infrastructure firms, and crypto-native players.
Tokenized repo is the beachhead. The spring 2027 live trial targets the highest-volume wholesale instrument, aiming to demonstrate DLT feasibility before extending to gilts, funds, and collateral.
Economic projections are aggressive. The £33 billion annual output figure derives from BCG's high-end global model. Independent validation is absent. Conservative estimates are approximately 33% lower.
DIGIT could make the UK the first G7 to issue blockchain-native sovereign debt. The Q1 2027 pilot on HSBC Orion would settle gilts atomically using tokenized commercial bank deposits.
The UK trails on execution but leads on scope. The EU and US have already launched live pilots. The UK's broader institutional coalition and nine-group structure may compensate for the later start.
Growth projections require scrutiny. The gap between $25 billion in current tokenized AUM and $88 trillion by 2035 implies growth rates without precedent in financial infrastructure.
The UK's 54-firm tokenization taskforce represents a calculated institutional bet: that coordinated public-private action can position London as the primary venue for wholesale market tokenization. The initiative combines the right participants (8 of the 10 largest global investment banks), the right instrument (repos), and the right sovereign signal (DIGIT).
Execution risk remains material. The nine action groups must finalize membership by September, deliver a live repo trial by spring 2027, and coordinate with FCA and Bank of England regulatory timelines. The EU and US are already running live pilots with central bank and DTCC backing respectively.
The economic case — £33 billion in annual UK output by 2035 — depends on tokenized RWA markets reaching a scale that requires sustained triple-digit annual growth from current levels. The taskforce's credibility rests not on its projections but on whether 54 institutions can agree on standards and ship production infrastructure within 12 months.