Points of Focus

• Ripple has joined a UK Treasury-backed tokenization taskforce alongside 53 other firms.
• The UK government projecting the initiative could add £33 billion to annual economic output by 2035.
• The taskforce’s first target is a live end-to-end tokenized repo transaction by spring 2027.

The UK government has launched its most ambitious digital markets blueprint to date, placing Ripple inside a new 54-firm taskforce alongside major global players to move tokenized wholesale finance from pilots to live market execution within 12 months. 

Chris Woolard, HM Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion and former FCA chair, released the report to the Chancellor, naming Ripple, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Barclays, UBS, Coinbase, Circle, Fireblocks and Kraken among the participants. It’s the latest of yet another crypto friendly moves the UK has made in recent times. 

Onchain funds, bonds and repo aren't experiments. They're already happening, delivering onchain financial instruments that are cheaper, better and faster than their legacy equivalents.

The UK has the capital markets depth and regulatory credibility to be a global leader in… pic.twitter.com/ELEP4x9UGL

— Ripple (@Ripple) July 13, 2026

The initiative projects tokenization could add up to £33 billion to annual UK economic output by 2035 and generate £14 billion in additional tax revenues, with Woolard stressing that tokenized markets are a network game where the UK must move at the speed of the most agile players to stay competitive.

Ripple enters as established infrastructure provider

The Woolard report uses Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road as evidence of convergence between established and new entrants in wholesale markets. Santander UK’s white-label use of Ripple’s blockchain for cross-border payments is listed alongside it, both used as live proof points that crypto infrastructure is already embedded in regulated UK financial activity.

Hidden Road, now operating as Ripple Prime, holds both an FCA investment-firm licence and FCA cryptoasset registration, covering spot and derivatives across FX and digital assets. That dual authorisation means Ripple, rather than entering the taskforce as an aspirational participant, is already operating under the same regulatory framework the taskforce is building toward.

Taskforce sets first live target for 2027

The 54 firms have been organized into nine action groups covering primary issuance, tokenized collateral, tokenized funds, settlement infrastructure, payment rails, legal certainty, interoperability standards, financial crime compliance and resilience. A ninth group focuses on promoting the UK as a global digital assets center.

The first live target is a complete tokenized repo transaction, a short-term borrowing arrangement using securities as collateral, to be demonstrated end-to-end by spring 2027. The taskforce also supports DIGIT, the UK’s digital gilt instrument, with Woolard calling for the first issuance no later than Q1 2027.

The UK is moving beyond permitting tokenization and toward building a wholesale market that can operate on tokenized rails.

A programme involving 54 financial and digital asset firms will develop live use cases over the next 12 months, beginning with tokenized repo.

Key… pic.twitter.com/BbbJZYIkLP

— STO Chain (@StoChain) July 15, 2026

The report proposes a hybrid infrastructure model where permissioned institutional networks are built on top of permissionless public blockchains, with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on Ethereum provided as the template. It notes that chain reorganization risks on public blockchains remain an unresolved settlement finality challenge, a technical caveat that will shape which infrastructure the live implementations ultimately use.

Feedback on the report is open until September 4 and a fuller interoperability report is due to the Chancellor by July 2027.