Leadership in the RWA sector could contribute up to £33 billion ($44 billion) annually to the UK economy by 2035. This is according to an industry development plan prepared by the UK’s Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard.
The roadmap is designed for one year, with the primary goal of transitioning from isolated experiments to full-scale blockchain integration in finance.
Key stages of the strategy include:
- testing repo operations using digital securities;
- issuing the first tokenized government bond by the end of the first quarter of 2027;
- establishing rules for secondary trading of digital assets;
- recognizing tokens as collateral by the Bank of England.
The working group includes over 50 companies, such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Ripple.
Ripple representatives supported the initiative, noting that onchain funds and bonds are no longer experiments but tools that operate “cheaper, better, and faster” than 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 document’s authors emphasized that tokenization of real-world assets could account for 16% of all global investments by 2035. To maintain its status as a financial hub, London must integrate the technology into the country’s legal and tax framework within the next two years.
Woolard noted that the UK must “move at the pace of the most agile players” to remain competitive in the global race for digital markets.
In April, the country’s Treasury announced plans to unify the regulation of traditional services, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits into a single legal framework.
