Titans of Wall Street have joined forces with the British government: BlackRock and JPMorgan lead a new era of tokenization
The world's largest financial institutions, including BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, have joined a new asset tokenization working group established with the support of the UK government. A total of 54 companies will collaborate to develop standards and infrastructure for digitizing traditional financial instruments.
Focus on REPO Transactions and Economic Potential
In the initial phase, the group will focus on tokenized REPO transactions (repurchase agreements). According to the strategy's authors, by 2035, tokenized markets could generate up to £33 billion in additional annual income for the UK economy and produce up to £14 billion in tax revenue. This is an ambitious yet entirely realistic forecast, given current dynamics.
Currently, tokenized assets account for only 0.01% of all investment assets in the UK, but their value has surged by 300% over the past year. The growth potential is enormous: analysts estimate that the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) could reach $88 trillion by 2035, tens of times larger than the current $3 trillion attributed to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
Speed as the Key Success Factor
The report's key takeaway is that in tokenization, the winner is the one who acts fastest. The authors warn that without a clear national strategy, standards and infrastructure could develop abroad, undermining London's role as a global financial center. The UK already plans to become the first G7 country to issue government debt securities on the blockchain as part of the DIGIT pilot project.
The working group will establish nine specialized areas, four of which will form the core: primary issuance, secondary markets, collateral, and settlement infrastructure. The first practical case will be a full REPO transaction—from start to finish. According to experts, this will serve as the foundation for scaling tokenization in secondary markets.
The importance of payment infrastructure is particularly emphasized. Without reliable tokenized deposits and stablecoins, large-scale tokenization simply will not work. The first real test of REPO transactions is planned for spring 2027.
Cryptalist Commentary: The creation of such a working group is a powerful signal to the market. When BlackRock and JPMorgan, the world's two largest asset managers, sit at the same table with the UK government, it means tokenization is moving from the experimental stage to industrial implementation. Investors should closely monitor developments: the first successful REPO transactions could act as a catalyst for a massive influx of institutional capital into the RWA sector.