Leadership in the realm of Real World Assets (RWA) could add up to £33 billion ($44 billion) annually to the UK economy by 2035, according to an industry development plan prepared by the UK’s Digital Markets Commissioner, Chris Woolard.
The roadmap is set for a year, with its primary goal being the transition from one-off experiments to the full-scale adoption of blockchain in finance.
Key milestones of the strategy include:
- testing REPO operations using digital securities;
- issuing the first tokenized government bond by the end of Q1 2027;
- establishing rules for secondary trading of digital assets;
- recognizing tokens as collateral by the Bank of England.
More than 50 companies, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Ripple, are part of the working group.
Ripple representatives have expressed support for the initiative, noting that on-chain funds and bonds are no longer experiments but tools that operate "cheaper, better, and faster" than their traditional counterparts.
Onchain funds, bonds and repo aren't experiments. They're already happening, delivering onchain financial instruments that are cheaper, better and faster than their legacy equivalents.
The UK has the capital markets depth and regulatory credibility to be a global leader in… pic.twitter.com/ELEP4x9UGL
— Ripple (@Ripple) July 13, 2026
The authors of the document emphasized that tokenization of real assets could account for 16% of all global investments by 2035. To maintain its status as a financial hub, London must integrate this technology into the country’s legal and tax frameworks within the next two years.
Woolard noted that the UK must "move at the speed of the most agile players" to avoid falling behind in the global race for digital markets.
In April, the country’s Treasury announced plans to consolidate the regulation of traditional services, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits into a single legal framework.