The UK Treasury has formed a 54-member taskforce, including Ripple, BlackRock, and J.P. Morgan, to replace legacy settlement systems with blockchain-based tokens for wholesale markets worth £33 billion annually.

The plan prioritizes Digital Gilts with a 2027 deadline, aiming to disrupt the fixed-income market first.

Live testing of tokenized repo transactions will run through spring 2027, with participant feedback collected through early September 2026.

The strategy expands digital gilts to issuance, live secondary trading, and eligibility as central-bank collateral to integrate tokenized securities into core market infrastructure.

UK milestones include tokenized FX collateral in 2025 and Britain’s first fully tokenized investment fund launched in June 2026.

A 12-month plan aims to test blockchain in a financial transaction and issue the first tokenized government bond (digital gilt) by early 2027.

Analysts warn about potential liquidity and trading thinness in tokenized markets as pilots scale into live trading.

HSBC’s Orion platform was engaged to support the digital gilt pilot, aligning with ongoing blockchain-based wholesale payment infrastructure in the UK.

The reform process signals a permanent shift in Britain’s capital markets, moving from consultation to practical implementation after September 2026.

DIGIT, the sovereign digital bonds program, will run alongside digitizing collateral markets and deploying end-to-end tech across nine action groups.

Fnality launched a sterling-denominated payment system in late 2025 to support real-time repo, tokenized settlement, and cross-currency payments using blockchain and central-bank-reserve features.

Tokenized real-world assets reached about $30 billion in 2025, underscoring rapid on-chain tokenization growth.