Ripple is formally named among 54 firms shaping the UK’s strategy for tokenising wholesale financial markets at scale. On 13 July 2026, the UK Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion issued his first report to the Chancellor, enabling a cross-industry taskforce to catalyse the shift of tokenisation from pilots to live, regulated markets.
For Ripple, known for payments and the XRP Ledger, inclusion places it alongside global banks, asset managers and infrastructure providers at the heart of UK market design. The move, supported by the City of London Corporation, shows that tokenisation is now a strategic priority, with impact for the issuance and settlement of gilt, repo, funds and collateral.
A Mandate for 54 Firms to Progress beyond Pilots
This initiative is led by Chris Woolard CBE, retired Financial Conduct Authority chairman, appointed the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion in April 2026. The City of London Corporation are the secretariat and is supported by The City UK, UK Finance, the Investment Association and Innovate Finance.
The 54 members include J.P. Morgan and Kinexys, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds, Standard Chartered, BlackRock, Fidelity, International Schroders, State Street, LSEG and LCH, Euroclear, Clearstream, DTCC, ICE, Cboe, Tradeweb, together with Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Fireblocks, Chainalysis, Ava Labs and Ripple.
Source: Tekedia
During 12 months, the group will implement a number of live use cases, with tokenised repo (where institutions borrow cash using collateral) being the first of these. It will also establish 9 Action Groups, focused on primary issuance (including the proposed Digital Gilt Instrument DIGIT), tokenised collateral, tokenised funds, payment rails, legal certainty, interoperability, financial crime compliance, tax neutrality and resilience.
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Why Should It Matter for Blockchain Infrastructure
For crypto and blockchain, the task force is a move from sandbox to live for real wholesale markets. It is all about settlement, collateral mobility, and issuance, not just tokenomics. Ripple is portrayed as an institutional provider. Ripple’s $1.25bn acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road- now bank-owned Ripple Prime, an FCA-registered investment service firm and cryptoasset-registered paper trail for convergence-Santander UK’s white-label use of Ripple rails were also cited.
Onchain funds, bonds and repo aren’t experiments. They’re here; they are happening now in the here and now. And they are delivering onchain financial instruments that are cheaper, better and faster than their legacy counterparts.”The economics does matter. The report estimates scaled tokenisation in the UK could deliver 33 billion a year to UK output and £14 billion in tax revenue in 2035 (Barclays and PwC simulation).
It quotes the Boston Consulting Group estimate of an $88 trillion market of global tokens of real-world assets by 2035-roughly 25 times the crypto and stablecoin markets, considered to be close to $3 trillion by then. Developers with blockchain experience would focus on architecture. Recommendations include a hybrid model, with permissioned institutional networks layered over permissionless chains for common liquidity (e.g. BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenised fund on Ethereum via Securitize). It also signals that chain reorganisations on public chains pose settlement finality risks not present in traditional infrastructure.
Also Read: US Crypto Capital Positive in 2026: Ripple CEO Hails Big
Implications, Risks and What Comes Next
The launch comes as adoption accelerates. Coverage tracking tokenised assets on the XRP Ledger expanded from $150 million to nearly $4 billion in the past year, with more than 500 products in operation, illustrating ongoing competition among networks for institutional issuance. Impacts are wide-ranging. Asset managers might experience intraday settlement and programmable funds; banks might mobilise collateral more rapidly; custodians, exchanges and prime brokers face new markets. For stablecoin issuers like Circle and settlement providers, the group will pilot payment legs for delivery-versus-payment.
Source: Ripple
Regulators must address legal certainty, tax neutrality and AML issues. Risks are obvious. Woolard described tokenised markets as a network game, stressing the UK must keep pace with nimble players or face liquidity being established offshore. Milestones include live tokenised repo trials through spring 2027, progress on DIGIT aiming at the UK’s first tokenised gilt by Q1 2027, and standards from the nine Action Groups. If achieved, the UK architecture might work as a model for G7 wholesale tokenisation and shape how blockchain native firms can work with legacy systems.
Also Read: Ripple and SettleMint Partner to Advance Institutional Tokenization
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