Wall Street Titans Unite: BlackRock and JPMorgan Join British Asset Tokenization Group
The financial world continues to consolidate around distributed ledger technology. The largest players in the global market, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, have joined a tokenization working group established with the support of the UK government. A total of 54 companies are participating in the initiative, which will jointly focus on the digitalization of traditional assets.
Repo Transactions as a Launchpad
In the first phase, the focus will be on tokenized repo transactions. In my assessment, this is a logical choice: the repo market is one of the largest and most liquid segments of the financial system, where settlement efficiency is critical. The work is planned for the coming year. According to analysis from the UK Treasury, by 2035, tokenized markets could generate up to £33 billion in additional annual income for the economy and up to £14 billion in tax revenue.
Growth Potential: From 0.01% to $88 Trillion
The UK remains the world's leading center for wholesale capital markets, processing an average of over £4 trillion in securities per day. However, tokenized assets accounted for only 0.01% of investment assets in 2025. Yet over the year, their value grew by 300% — an impressive figure indicating explosive interest. According to forecasts, the volume of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) could reach $88 trillion by 2035, far exceeding the current $3 trillion attributed to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
The report's authors warn of the dangers of delay. Without a clear national strategy, standards and infrastructure could develop abroad, undermining the country's role as an open global financial center. This is a key point: in the race for standards, the one who acts faster wins.
Nine Focus Areas and the DIGIT Pilot Project
To achieve its goals, the group is creating nine specialized focus areas. The core of the work will be four of them, covering the entire transaction chain: primary issuance, secondary markets, collateral, and settlement infrastructure. A full repo transaction — from start to finish — has been chosen as the first practical example. According to researchers, this will serve as a foundation for scaling tokenization in secondary markets and yield the greatest efficiency gains.
The work will be led by a separate coordinating group tasked with ensuring system interoperability and conducting cross-border tests. Concrete steps are expected from the government and regulators, including a priority pilot issuance of DIGIT no later than the first quarter of 2027 and the Bank of England's readiness to accept these securities as collateral.
The importance of the payment side is emphasized separately. Without reliable payment infrastructure, including tokenized deposits and stablecoins, large-scale tokenization simply will not work.
My forecast: The creation of such a working group with the participation of institutional giants is not just another initiative, but a clear signal to the market. Tokenization is moving from the experimental stage to the phase of real implementation. The first real test of a repo transaction is planned for spring 2027. Investors should closely monitor this process: it could fundamentally change the structure of global capital markets.