The UK wants an in on the the tokenized market as the sector growth supports projections of hitting $88 trillion in valuation by 2035. On Monday, the UK government unveiled a high-profile taskforce to focus on its efforts to tokenize and scale its wholesale financial markets. Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Coinbase, Circle, Chainalysis, Barclays, and Ava Labs have been named among the 54 members of this coalition.
Chris Woolard, the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion of the UK Treasury, released a 71-page report addressed to Rachel Reevs, UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. The report essentially highlighted that tokenizing wholesale financial markets could give UK a major lead in the advanced economic race
“There is so much potential, technologically and economically, if the right actions are taken and decisions are made now to embrace and support tokenization,” Woolard said, commenting on the development.
Its all about the markets and the capital
UK’s capital markets, foreign exchange market, money markets, derivatives, and commodities collectively make for the national wholesale financial ecosystem worth trillions.
Source: Financial Conduct Authority
The taskforce assembled by the UK government will be working on tokenizing assets while also delivering end-to-end use cases for tokenized assets.
The issuance of tokenised collateral, funds, and payment rails are among spotlighted priorities for the next 12 months for this taskforce. During this period, the members of this coalition will help UK gather more insights on setting standards around interoperability, financial crime compliance, and tax neutrality.
Adding depths to liquidity
UK’s push on taking its markets onchain primarily focuses on generating more liquidity and revenues for the national economy. On-chain trading, for instance, can be active 24/7 to keep money in motion and the market alive regardless of holidays or market slumps.
The move comes after the UK stock market clocked a notable uptick in 2025, with the FTSE 100 surging over 21 percent to deliver its best annual return since 2009. The FTSE stands for the Financial Times Stock Exchange — which can be called UK’s equivalent to Standard & Poor’s (S&P) or Dow Jones for market ratings in the U.S.
Before 2025, the UK markets had witnessed a structural decline with a big drop in listed companies and shrinking relevance in global portfolios.
Source: AFME.eu
The country is now shifting focus towards tokenized markets based on government estimations that the scale of the tokenized market and its benefits could add upto GBP 33 billion to UK’s annual economic output and GBP 14 billion in annual tax revenues by 2035.
“By accelerating the adoption of tokenisation across our wholesale markets, we can build the market infrastructure of the future, set global standards,” said Chris Hayward, the Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation. “The UK has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead a digital Big Bang in financial services.”
Chancellor Reeves also said providing greater access to tokenization could attract more global investment to the country.
Citi, Fidelity International, J.P. Morgan, Kraken, Ripple, Standard Chartered, and Morgan Stanley are among other members of UK’s tokenization taskforce.
