UK wholesale digital markets champion sets out tokenization plan projecting £33bn a year by 2035

What happened

HM Treasury published the first report of the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion on 13 July 2026. The report, addressed to the Chancellor, sets out a programme for tokenizing UK wholesale markets and estimates £33bn of annual economic benefit and around £14bn of additional tax revenue by 2035. The report builds on existing UK workstreams: DIGIT, the first natively digital sovereign bond issued by a G7 state; the Digital Securities Sandbox operated by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority; and GBTD, a tokenized sterling deposit pilot involving six large UK banks. A framework for tokenized funds is described as in development. Reporting indicates a group of 54 firms is involved in the wholesale tokenization effort. The report frames the UK's position in foreign exchange, OTC derivatives, repo and funding markets as the asset to defend, and describes tokenization as a network effect in which infrastructure choices made elsewhere constrain later UK options.

Why it matters

The UK is the largest centre for cross-border wholesale finance, and the report is the first attempt by the Treasury to put a number on what tokenization is worth to that franchise. The £33bn figure is a projection rather than an observed outcome, but it establishes a fiscal argument that policy teams can be held to. It also sets the UK approach against the EU and US models: sandbox-first supervised experimentation with sterling tokenized deposits and gilts, rather than a broad securities-law reinterpretation.

What is not settled

The report does not commit the Treasury to legislation or a timetable, and the methodology behind the £33bn and £14bn projections is not independently verified.