Ripple joins UK Treasury taskforce to tokenize £33B wholesale markets
In brief
- Ripple joins 54-firm UK Treasury taskforce including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan to tokenize wholesale markets
- Initiative replaces legacy settlement systems with blockchain platforms and launches DIGIT sovereign digital bonds
- Working group targets £33 billion annual economic output by 2035 through on-chain wholesale markets
- Nine action groups conducting live tokenized repo transaction testing by spring 2027
The taskforce and its mandate
Ripple will work alongside major financial institutions including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Euroclear, and Bloomberg. The collaboration reflects a broader shift in how the UK's financial infrastructure could operate. Rather than preserve existing settlement mechanisms, the working group is tasked with designing end-to-end blockchain solutions for wholesale markets.
According to official government estimates, moving wholesale markets onto on-chain rails could generate up to £33 billion in annual economic output by 2035. The scale of the opportunity extends beyond the UK. The global market for tokenized real-world assets is expected to reach approximately $88 trillion by 2035, underscoring why regulators and institutions are accelerating blockchain adoption.
Immediate priorities and timeline
The working group has structured its next 12 months around strict deadlines. The immediate focus is on the fixed-income market as the most advanced sector ready for disruption. Two concrete priorities have emerged: the launch of DIGIT, the United Kingdom's sovereign digital bonds, and the transition of collateral markets into a digital format.
Nine dedicated action groups have been tasked with deploying these use cases. Full live testing of tokenized repo transactions is scheduled for spring 2027. The timeline is aggressive but reflects the UK's determination to lead wholesale market digitalization.
Feedback from financial-sector participants on the first stage of the reform will be collected until September 4, 2026. This input phase will shape the technical and operational architecture moving forward.
