The United Kingdom could boost its annual economic output by up to £33 billion ($44 trillion won) by 2035 if it becomes a global hub for tokenized finance, according to a government-backed industry task force report. The estimate comes from the first report by Chris Woolard, the UK Treasury-appointed Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, signaling that the country's digital asset policy is moving from experimentation to commercialization.
Report calls for tokenized repo market and digital gilts
The report outlines a 12-month plan to apply blockchain to the repo market, where securities are used as collateral for cash loans, and urges the issuance of the first tokenized government bond (digital gilt) by the first quarter of 2027. The task force includes over 50 traditional finance and crypto firms, such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS, Coinbase, Circle, Ripple, Kraken, DTCC, and Euroclear. The report emphasizes that tokenization must move beyond pilots to real-world trading, settlement, and collateral use, stating it is time to go "from pilot to scale" and "from ambition to execution."
Ripple and industry support
Ripple, as a member of the task force, voiced support, arguing that on-chain funds, bonds, and repos are not experiments but are "cheaper, better, and faster" than traditional methods. The company stressed that tokenized assets need trading and collateral functions to create real liquidity, not just issuance.
Infrastructure and competition
The UK already has blockchain-based wholesale settlement infrastructure through Fnality, which launched a pound sterling settlement system linked to Bank of England reserves in December 2023, designed to support real-time repo, tokenized securities settlement, and cross-currency payments. The report also proposes that the Bank of England accept digital gilts as collateral. With clear timelines and expanding scope, the UK is accelerating its push to integrate tokenization into capital markets, competing with the US and Europe as regulatory and infrastructure pieces fall into place.