BlackRock and HSBC have joined a UK tokenization push projected to boost annual economic output by up to $44 billion, as 54 firms line up behind the plan.

The taskforce is led by Christopher Woolard, the British government’s wholesale digital markets champion and a former interim head of the Financial Conduct Authority. His first report to the Treasury, delivered in July 2026, maps a route from pilots to live markets.

A $44 Billion Bet on Tokenized Markets

Tokenization converts ownership of assets such as bonds, funds, and property into digital tokens that are recorded on a blockchain. Supporters argue it cuts costs, speeds settlement, and frees capital trapped in aging back-office systems.

The economic case comes from Barclays and PwC. Their study estimates that tokenization could add up to $44 billion (£33 billion) to UK output by 2035. Roughly two-thirds of that gain would fall outside financial services, in the wider economy.

That top figure is a ceiling, not a base case. It assumes the UK becomes a leading hub while the US and Europe adopt in parallel. A more cautious scenario points to about $29 billion (£22 billion) a year, plus $19 billion (£14 billion) in fresh annual tax revenue.

The prize reflects how early the market still is. Tokenized real-world assets (RWA) stood near $30 billion in 2025, a sliver of global markets. Yet that value jumped about 300% over the year. The latest on-chain tokenization data track the same climb.

Forecasters expect the base to expand fast. Consultancy BCG projects that tokenized assets could reach around $55 trillion by 2035. That gap is why the tokenized stocks and bonds wave now sits at the center of institutional strategy.

Note: Latest research from BeInCrypto found that more than 56% of the Tokenization market has zero activity on-chain.

Global Banks Back the UK Tokenization Push

BlackRock shows how far traditional finance has moved. The world’s largest asset manager runs BUIDL, the largest tokenized US Treasury fund, with about $2.4 billion in assets. It also registered as a UK cryptoasset firm in 2025, while HSBC has issued digital bonds through its Orion platform.

The taskforce reads like a roll call of global finance. Its 54 members include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and UBS.

Asset managers Fidelity International, Schroders, and State Street also signed on. Market infrastructure firms DTCC, Euroclear, and the London Stock Exchange Group joined too. So did crypto-native players such as Circle, Ripple, and Coinbase.

The UK has already produced working proof points. Lloyds, Aberdeen, and Archax completed a UK-first tokenized foreign exchange trade collateralized in 2025. Baillie Gifford and BNY launched Britain’s first fully tokenized investment fund in June 2026.

That momentum has pulled established institutional tokenization platforms into regulated markets rather than sandboxes alone.

The taskforce plans to prove the technology one use case at a time. Its first target is the repo market, where firms borrow cash against securities for short periods. Woolard’s group wants a live tokenized repo trial by spring 2027, then work on fixed income and derivatives.

There is precedent to build on. In early 2026, Digital Asset ran a cross-border intraday repo trade using tokenized gilts on its Canton network.

UK Eyes First G7 Tokenized Government Bond

The boldest goal targets sovereign debt. The report urges an early pilot of a digital gilt instrument, known as DIGIT, no later than the first quarter of 2027. Success would make the UK the first Group of Seven nation to issue tokenized government debt.

Smaller jurisdictions moved first. Hong Kong sold the world’s first tokenized government green bond in 2023. It then priced a record multi-currency digital bond in 2025. Slovenia became the first European Union sovereign to issue debt on a distributed ledger in 2024. The European Investment Bank has run blockchain bonds since 2021.

That history sharpens the stakes. The UK is not inventing tokenized debt, but no major economy has issued it, and London wants to claim that ground first.

Regulators are moving in step. The Financial Conduct Authority will open applications for its cryptoasset regime on September 30, 2026. Full rollout follows in October 2027, alongside broader UK stablecoin plans due the same year.

Woolard cast the effort as a contest for the country’s place in global finance.

“Put simply, tokenised markets are fundamental to the future of financial services. What the UK does here determines our right to be at the heart of the next generation of financial markets,” read an excerpt in the report, citing Woolard.

The hard part is what follows the pilots. Analysts still flag thin trading and shallow tokenized market liquidity as the sector’s weak spot. The taskforce must close that gap as it scales.

The UK now has firm dates, heavyweight backers, and a clear target. The next year will show whether these trials can reach live markets before rival financial centers close the gap.

Source: BeInCrypto