The UK formed a working group of 54 companies, including Circle and Ripple, to promote the tokenizat

The British government has established a working group of 54 companies to promote the tokenization process

The British government has established an industry working group of 54 companies to promote the application of tokenization in domestic wholesale financial markets. The working group brings together major crypto companies such as Circle, Ripple, and Coinbase, as well as top global financial institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Purpose and Structure of the Working Group

Chris Woolard served as Interim CEO of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and became the UK Treasury's Special Envoy for Wholesale Digital Markets in April 2026. He introduced the working group in his first official report to Chancellor Rachel Reeves on July 13. The City of London Corporation coordinates the working group, working with organizations such as TheCityUK, the British Finance, Investment Association and Innovate Finance.

working group is to build and deliver end-to-end practical application cases starting from tokenized repo transactions within the next 12 months. Nine action groups within the working group will be responsible for setting standards for priority links in the market value chain.

The Global City, the investor-oriented arm of the City of London government, said the first field trial of the repurchase application case is expected to take place in spring 2027, and will subsequently be considered for expansion into commodities and other asset classes later that year.

Integration of crypto and traditional finance

The large lineup of the working group is not limited to Wall Street institutions. Participants also include Circle, Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken's Payward entity, Chainalysis, Fireblocks, Ctrl Alt, Digital Asset Holdings (the team behind Canton Network), crypto and blockchain companies such as GFO-X, Ubyx, SLIX, Tokenovate and Wintermute.

These companies will work side by side with large financial institutions such as HSBC, Barclays, UBS, Citigroup, State Street, London Stock Exchange Group and DTCC.

By bringing stablecoin issuers and cryptocurrency exchanges together with established banking giants, the initiative aims to bridge the gap between traditional financial infrastructure and digital financial infrastructure-the two are often seen as competing with each other.

Kirit Bhatia, head of digital assets at Banking Circle, pointed out: "The more difficult issue is pipeline, not issuance." He added that payment infrastructure must support real-time settlement, cross-border flows, regulated forms of currency, and interoperability between stablecoins, tokenized deposits and statutory payment systems.

Bhatia emphasized: "Without these, digital assets may be faster at the edge, but still limited by the shackles of traditional pipelines at the bottom."

Mini Dictionary: Tokenized repo transactions are a form of repo agreement transactions that use blockchain technology to tokenize securities and cash flows. Compared to traditional repo markets, it aims to improve speed, transparency and efficiency.

Economic Impact and Forecast

Woolard's report quoted the Boston Consulting Group's forecast that by 2035, the tokenized real asset market could reach US$88 trillion, while the current crypto and stablecoin market size is approximately US$3 trillion.

The current (2026) crypto and stablecoin market value is US$3 trillion; the monetized real asset market is forecast to be US$88 trillion in 2035. For the UK, the report expects to generate up to £ 33 billion in economic output growth and £ 14 billion in additional tax revenue annually by 2035.

Woolard described the competition between regions as "an online game" and warned that the UK's leadership in digital assets was not taken for granted. He said the UK "must move at the pace of the most agile players."

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said maintaining the UK's leading position in global finance required "leveraging technologies such as tokenization." Chris Hayward, chairman of the City's Policy Committee, described the move as an opportunity to "lead the digital explosion in financial services."

Next steps

The working group's work builds on previous projects, including the UK's DIGIT (Digital Gilt Bond Facility), a tokenized form of government bonds. The first DIGIT is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027 in the Bank of England and FCA's digital securities sandbox.

The feedback receiving period on the Woolard report lasts until September 4, 2026. The final membership lists of the nine action groups are scheduled to be confirmed by the end of September, with the second report submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by July 2027 at the latest.