Ripple backs UK tokenization strategy targeting live repo testing by spring 2027

A UK Treasury-backed report has highlighted Ripple as one model for advancing financial market tokenization and said repos, bonds and investment trusts could move from pilot stages to live use within 12 months. The work sits within a broader wholesale digital markets push involving 54 firms including BlackRock, HSBC, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Circle, Ripple and Coinbase, as policymakers try to shift tokenization from experiments into functioning market infrastructure. The strategy is led by Christopher Woolard, the British government’s wholesale digital markets champion and a former interim head of the Financial Conduct Authority. His July 2026 report to the Treasury centers first on tokenized repos, with a live trial targeted by spring 2027, while also urging an early pilot of DIGIT, the UK’s proposed digital gilt instrument, by the first quarter of 2027. The new report points to a market structure that combines public-blockchain liquidity with permissioned institutional networks, arguing that hybrid designs could help bridge regulated finance with deeper digital-asset trading pools. As examples, it cites Ripple’s Hidden Road acquisition and Santander’s cross-border payment use case. Supporters say tokenization can lower operating costs, speed settlement and make collateral and market infrastructure more efficient, though analysts still flag thin trading and shallow liquidity as major constraints on wider adoption.