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A UK report by Chris Woolard, the government's wholesale digital markets champion, projects that scaling tokenisation of financial markets could add about £33bn a year to UK output and £14bn in tax by 2035. The figures are projections, not guarantees, and depend on delivery.

Key takeaways

  • A report published on 13 July 2026 by Chris Woolard projects tokenisation could add around £33bn a year to UK output and £14bn in annual tax by 2035 if implemented at scale.
  • The figures are projections tied to a forecast global tokenised-asset market and depend heavily on execution; they are not current or guaranteed gains.
  • A cross-industry taskforce of 54 firms, including major banks and asset managers, backs a 12-month delivery plan across nine action areas, initially focused on tokenised repo.
  • The DIGIT digital gilt pilot and the FCA and Bank of England Digital Securities Sandbox provide the regulatory testing ground for tokenised instruments.
  • Key risks include fragmentation, unclear settlement and legal frameworks, cyber security, and international competition from the US, EU and Asian centres.

Britain has set out an ambition to lead the next phase of financial technology, and it has attached a striking number to it. On 13 July 2026, Chris Woolard, appointed as the government's wholesale digital markets champion, published a report projecting that scaling the tokenisation of financial markets could add roughly £33bn a year to UK economic output by 2035, along with an estimated £14bn in additional annual tax revenue. Backed by a cross-industry taskforce of dozens of major firms, the report frames tokenisation as a potential growth engine for the City and the wider economy. The figures, however, are projections that depend on delivery, not gains that have already been banked.

What has been announced

The report is the first major output of the wholesale digital markets champion role, created to accelerate the UK's use of tokenisation in financial services. It was published to the Chancellor and developed with the support of the City of London Corporation and industry bodies. Rather than a binding policy, it functions as a roadmap: a set of recommendations and a delivery plan intended to move the UK from pilots and sandboxes towards live, at-scale use of tokenised financial instruments.

Tokenisation refers to representing assets, such as bonds, funds or collateral, as digital tokens recorded on shared ledgers, often described under the umbrella of blockchain or distributed ledger technology. Proponents argue this can make issuing, trading and settling assets faster, cheaper and more transparent, by reducing manual reconciliation and shortening settlement times. The report focuses squarely on wholesale markets, where large institutions transact, rather than on retail crypto speculation.

The plan is organised around a set of action groups covering priority areas, with a 12-month timeline aimed at delivering live, end-to-end use cases. Early efforts are reported to focus on tokenised repo, a form of short-term secured funding that is central to how banks and investors manage liquidity, and which is seen as a practical first step because it involves established, high-volume market activity.

Where the £33 billion figure comes from

Attribution matters here, because a large headline number can easily be misread. The £33bn is presented in the Woolard report as a projected annual addition to UK output by 2035, contingent on tokenisation being implemented at scale, with a further £14bn in annual tax revenue estimated for the same horizon. These are modelled estimates of a potential future, not measurements of value already created.

The projections are linked to expectations of substantial growth in the global market for tokenised real-world assets over the coming decade, with some forecasts pointing to a market measured in tens of trillions of dollars by 2035. Such long-range forecasts are inherently uncertain and sensitive to assumptions about adoption, regulation and technology. The sensible reading is that £33bn represents an estimate of the prize if execution succeeds, rather than a guaranteed dividend.

It is also worth keeping the number in proportion. Set against a UK economy measured in the trillions of pounds, a projected £33bn annual uplift by 2035 would be meaningful but incremental rather than transformational on its own. Its significance lies as much in what it represents, a signal that the UK intends to compete for a growing global market, as in the precise magnitude of the estimate, which will inevitably be revised as evidence accumulates.

The industry coalition behind the plan

One reason the report has drawn attention is the breadth of support behind it. A cross-industry taskforce of 54 firms is reported to back the effort, spanning major banks and asset managers as well as fintech and infrastructure providers. Reported participants include large institutions such as Barclays, HSBC, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, UBS, Lloyds Banking Group and BlackRock, alongside newer players in the digital-assets space.

Coordination has involved the City of London Corporation and industry bodies including TheCityUK, the Investment Association, UK Finance and Innovate Finance. That combination of incumbents and challengers is significant: tokenisation only delivers network benefits if a critical mass of participants adopts shared standards, so broad buy-in is arguably as important as the technology itself.

The presence of both established banks and digital-asset specialists also hints at a familiar tension. Incumbents bring scale, balance sheets and market access, while newer firms bring the technology and appetite for change. Aligning their commercial interests around common rails, rather than competing proprietary systems, will be one of the central tests of whether the coalition can convert intent into working infrastructure.

The regulatory testing ground

The report builds on regulatory foundations already in place. The Digital Securities Sandbox, operated jointly by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England, allows firms to test the issuance, trading and settlement of tokenised securities within a controlled framework and with temporary modifications to existing rules. It is designed to let regulators and the market learn together before permanent rules are set.

A centrepiece of the wider agenda is DIGIT, the UK's planned digital gilt instrument, a pilot to issue government debt in tokenised form. A tokenised sovereign bond would be a notable signal of official commitment, providing a high-quality reference asset that could catalyse broader market adoption. The report treats DIGIT as a foundational step, and issuance is expected to follow through the pilot rather than being complete today.

Running alongside is the evolving framework for stablecoins, digital tokens designed to hold a steady value, which the Bank of England and the FCA have been shaping. Clear, proportionate rules for stablecoins and for the settlement of tokenised transactions are widely seen as prerequisites for wholesale markets to move at scale, because institutions need certainty about how digital money and digital assets interact.

Why it matters for the economy

For the wider economy, the appeal of tokenisation lies in efficiency and competitiveness. Financial and related professional services are a substantial contributor to UK output, employment and tax receipts. If tokenisation lowers costs and speeds settlement in wholesale markets, it could support the City's competitive position at a time when other financial centres are pursuing similar ambitions, and help retain high-value activity and jobs in the UK.

For businesses beyond finance, the longer-term promise is cheaper and faster access to capital and more efficient management of collateral and cash. Tokenised markets could, in principle, make it easier for firms to raise funds and for investors to access a wider range of assets. These benefits, though, would materialise gradually and depend on the plumbing being built reliably and adopted widely.

For households and savers, the effects are mostly indirect. Few people will interact with tokenised gilts or repo directly, but a more efficient and competitive financial sector can influence the cost of borrowing, the returns available to pension funds and the overall health of an industry that underpins public finances. As with much financial infrastructure, the benefits are real but diffuse, and easy to overlook.

Regional and sector dimensions

The benefits of a tokenisation drive would not be spread evenly. Much of the immediate activity would concentrate in London and the established financial centre, where wholesale market infrastructure, legal expertise and institutional capital are clustered. That could reinforce existing regional imbalances unless the surrounding technology, data and professional-services activity spreads more widely across the UK's fintech hubs.

Across sectors, the earliest gains are likely to accrue to capital markets, asset management and banking, where tokenised repo, funds and bonds map onto existing high-volume activity. Insurance, pensions and corporate treasury functions could follow as standards mature. For the technology and professional-services firms that build and support these systems, the agenda represents a potential source of demand, provided the market genuinely scales rather than remaining confined to pilots.

Short-term and long-term scenarios

In the near term, realistic progress looks incremental: a successful digital gilt issuance under DIGIT, a handful of live tokenised repo transactions, and expanded use of the Digital Securities Sandbox. These would be important proofs of concept, demonstrating that tokenised instruments can be issued, traded and settled within a sound legal and regulatory framework, even if the volumes involved remain modest at first.

Over the longer term, the optimistic scenario is a self-reinforcing shift, in which shared standards, deep liquidity and clear rules draw a critical mass of participants and make the UK a natural home for tokenised markets. The more cautious scenario is slower, fragmented adoption, with benefits materialising later and more modestly than the headline projection implies. Both remain plausible, which is precisely why the projected figures should be read as a range of possibilities rather than a firm forecast.

Implications for policy, rates and public finances

The tokenisation agenda intersects with monetary and fiscal policy in subtle ways. A tokenised gilt market could, over time, affect how government debt is issued and settled, an area of direct interest to the Treasury and the Debt Management Office. The Bank of England's involvement reflects the need to ensure that new settlement models do not introduce instability into core markets or complicate the transmission of monetary policy.

The projected £14bn in annual tax revenue by 2035, like the output figure, is a modelled estimate contingent on scale. If even a portion were realised, it could modestly support the public finances over the long run. But policymakers will be wary of banking on projections, and the emphasis is likely to remain on building credible infrastructure and rules first, with fiscal benefits treated as a possible consequence rather than a plan.

Key risks and uncertainties

The largest risk is simply that execution falls short of ambition. Delivering live, at-scale tokenised markets within tight timelines is demanding, and previous waves of enthusiasm for distributed ledger technology have sometimes outpaced practical results. Fragmentation is a related danger: competing platforms and standards could splinter liquidity rather than pooling it, undermining the network effects on which the benefits depend.

Legal and operational questions also loom large. Certainty over the legal status of tokenised assets, the finality of settlement, custody arrangements and resilience against cyber attacks all need to be resolved. International competition adds pressure, as the United States, the European Union and financial hubs across Asia and the Middle East pursue their own tokenisation initiatives. The UK's edge is not guaranteed, and the projected gains could prove smaller or slower to arrive than hoped.

What to watch next

Several milestones will indicate whether momentum is real. Progress on the DIGIT digital gilt pilot, expansion of activity within the Digital Securities Sandbox, and the delivery of the first live tokenised repo use cases would each mark tangible steps beyond planning. Clarity on stablecoin and settlement rules from the Bank of England and the FCA would remove key sources of uncertainty for institutions.

It will also be worth watching how the 12-month delivery plan translates into concrete outcomes, whether the broad industry coalition holds together around common standards, and how the government sustains political and financial support. The credibility of the £33bn projection will ultimately be judged not by the headline itself, but by the pace and quality of delivery over the next few years.