The UK sets up an “RWA tokenization group”! 54 major firms including BlackRock and JPMorgan join, eyeing the $88 trillion blue-ocean market

The national-level battle for real-world assets (RWA) has officially begun! According to CoinDesk, the UK government has officially launched a “Tokenisation Taskforce” made up of 54 global financial giants. Members include Wall Street heavyweights such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan. In its initial phase, the plan will focus on “tokenised repo agreements,” aiming to seize a blue-ocean market that could reach as high as $88 trillion by 2035, and is expected to inject £33 billion of liquidity into the UK economy every year.
(Background: The Swift blockchain ledger is ready: 17 banks including Citibank and HSBC are piloting “tokenised” cross-border payments)
(Additional context: Grayscale reveals a 3-stage RWA tokenisation wave, naming Ethereum, Solana, and AVAX as the biggest winners)

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• 54 giants assemble, first issue targets “tokenised repo agreements”
• Estimated creates £10 billion tax revenue, UK targets the $88 trillion market
• Cross-network settlement and interoperability are the biggest challenges

Amid the wave of global capital markets increasingly embracing blockchain technology, the UK government is showing strong intent to seize leadership in the next decade of digital assets.

On July 13, 2026 (Taiwan time), the UK Treasury announced the official launch of a “Tokenisation Taskforce” made up of 54 top-tier financial institutions. The plan’s core goal is to fully drive the real-world asset tokenisation (Tokenised RWA) into practical applications within the UK wholesale financial markets, deeply integrating blockchain technology into the underlying operations of traditional finance.

54 giants assemble, first issue targets “tokenised repo agreements”

This much-anticipated national-level taskforce boasts an all-star lineup on par with Wall Street. The participating 54 financial institutions include major global asset managers and investment banks, such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.

The group is led personally by Chris Woolard, the UK Treasury-appointed “Wholesale Digital Markets Advocate” and the former chair of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and also has the strong backing of the City of London Corporation.

Under the plan, over the next full year, the taskforce’s top priority will begin with establishing real-world use cases for Tokenised repo, and then gradually expand tokenised applications to other key areas of the UK financial market to build a truly “live” blockchain finance ecosystem that can land on the ground.

Estimated creates £10 billion tax revenue, UK targets the $88 trillion market

Behind this massive initiative are extremely significant economic benefits. According to estimates by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the size of the global tokenised RWA market is expected to reach $88 trillion by 2035, far exceeding the current combined market capitalization of the entire crypto and stablecoin market of around $3 trillion.

The UK government is optimistic that, through an internationally leading rollout of tokenisation infrastructure, it can significantly improve productivity and cost efficiency in financial markets. This is expected to add up to £33 billion (about $4.42 billion) in economic output for the UK each year, and generate an additional £14 billion in tax revenue.

In his first report submitted to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Woolard also issued a strong warning. He described this technological transformation as a brutal “Network game,” stressing that the UK must act quickly, or it will miss its chance to establish a foothold in international competition with jurisdictions such as the United States and the European Union.

Cross-network settlement and interoperability are the biggest challenges

Despite the broad outlook, moving traditional assets onto the blockchain still faces severe technological and institutional challenges. Kirit Bhatia, Chief Digital Assets Officer at Banking Circle, said the biggest challenge the industry faces today is how to ensure these tokenised assets can be smoothly used for financing, settlement, as collateral, and even move freely between different blockchain networks.

Bhatia emphasized that the market urgently needs a modern payments infrastructure that can support real-time settlement, cross-border movement, and compatibility with multiple regulated currencies; at the same time, it must also enable interoperability between stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and traditional fiat currency systems. Otherwise, these highly promising digital assets will ultimately remain trapped in outdated and inefficient legacy infrastructure.