Digital Asset / Canton has joined a 54-firm UK taskforce formed to scale tokenisation across wholesale financial markets.
Chris Woolard CBE, HM Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, set out the programme in his inaugural report to Chancellor Rachel Reeves on 13 July 2026. The work is supported by the City of London Corporation and coordinated with government, UK regulators and the participating firms.
The UK has already completed a series of pilots and small-scale commercial trials. The next step is to turn that work into scalable live markets.
The programme covers primary issuance, secondary markets, tokenised collateral, tokenised funds and payment rails for digital markets. It also addresses legal and regulatory certainty, interoperability standards, financial-crime compliance, tax neutrality and resilience.
Primary issuance work will build on DIGIT, the UK Digital Gilt instrument.
During the next 12 months, the taskforce will develop live, end-to-end use cases, beginning with tokenised repo. Nine Action Groups will work across the market value chain and develop shared best-practice standards.
The City of London Corporation will support the programme alongside TheCityUK, the Investment Association, UK Finance and Innovate Finance.
Wholesale financial markets support jobs and financing across the wider economy. Tokenisation could increase liquidity and revenue, reduce costs and capital requirements, support innovation and strengthen the resilience of the financial system.
The tokenised real-world assets market is estimated to reach $88 trillion by 2035. Tokenisation could add hundreds of billions of pounds in economic value to the UK over the same period. By 2035, it could add up to £33 billion to annual economic output and £14 billion to annual tax revenues.
The UK enters the programme with trusted legal and regulatory frameworks, globally significant financial-market intermediaries and a strong innovation ecosystem. Scaling adoption will require clear legal, regulatory and tax treatment, domestic and international interoperability, and a coordinated national approach.
Woolard said the UK is well placed to lead wholesale-market tokenisation but needs to take the necessary decisions and actions now.
City of London Corporation Policy Chairman Chris Hayward described the programme as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a digital “Big Bang” in financial services. He said it could help build future market infrastructure, establish global standards and reinforce the UK’s position as an international financial centre.
Reeves said tokenisation could improve market competitiveness, attract investment and support economic growth across the UK.
The 54 participating firms are:
Ava Labs; Aviva Investors; Baillie Gifford; Barclays; BlackRock; Bloomberg; BNP Paribas; BPX; Calastone; Cboe Global Markets; Chainalysis; Circle; Citadel Securities; Citi; ClearBank; Clearstream; ClearToken; Coinbase; Ctrl Alt; Deutsche Bank; Digital Asset / Canton; DTCC; Euroclear UK & International (CREST); Fidelity International; Fireblocks; Fnality; GFO-X; Goldman Sachs; HSBC; Intercontinental Exchange (ICE); Invesco; Jane Street; J.P. Morgan; Kinexys by J.P. Morgan; Kraken (Payward); Legal & General Asset Management; Lloyds Banking Group; LME Clear; LSEG and LCH; Mobius; Montis Digital; Morgan Stanley; Northern Trust; Optiver; Ripple; Schroders; SLIX; Standard Chartered; State Street; Tokenovate; Tradeweb; UBS; Ubyx; and Wintermute.
