US and UK Align Rules for Tokenized Finance

Par La Rédaction
Publié le 15 July 2026

Uncategorized

United States and United Kingdom Align Rules for Tokenized Finance

The United States and the United Kingdom have just taken a historic step in the regulation of digital assets: for the first time, the world’s two largest financial centers are aligning their rules regarding tokenized finance. This announcement, reported by several specialized media outlets, marks a turning point in the institutional adoption of tokenization and could reshape the contours of the international financial system.

The British Treasury has published an in-depth report on tokenization, in which it explicitly cites the convergence model developed by Ripple as a reference. This mention is far from trivial: it signals that London now considers tokenized settlement infrastructure as a central element of its post-Brexit financial strategy. On the other side of the Atlantic, U.S. regulators, driven by the White House and the Treasury Department, are working in parallel on rules compatible with those being developed in the City.

What markets now call “bilateral regulatory alignment” is not limited to a simple exchange of best practices. It involves concrete coordination on fundamental technical aspects: the legal definition of tokenized assets, custody and safekeeping rules, transparency standards applicable to trading platforms, and delivery-versus-payment mechanisms in a tokenized environment. Both countries share the conviction that tokenization can significantly reduce settlement times, lower intermediation costs, and provide greater transparency for financial transactions.

The British Treasury estimates that this tokenization dynamic could add up to $44 billion per year to the United Kingdom’s economic output by 2035. This figure illustrates the scale of what is at stake. To put that amount into perspective, it would represent an annual contribution greater than that of entire sectors of the British economy. Analysts see in this projection the very reason for London’s eagerness to align with Washington: the United Kingdom wants to be the world’s leading hub for tokenized finance, and to achieve that, it needs a regulatory bridge with the United States, which remains by far the largest capital market in the world.

On the American side, the approach is institutionally more fragmented but convergent in direction. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.S. Treasury are coordinating their positions to offer a consistent framework for the industry. Several observers note that the U.S. administration sees this alignment with the United Kingdom as a way to counter the growing influence of other jurisdictions—notably the European Union with its MiCA regulation, already in force—and to maintain the Anglo-American duo’s preeminence in the global financial architecture.

The timing of this announcement is not coincidental. It comes at a time when tokenization of real-world assets is experiencing unprecedented acceleration. From government bonds to money market funds, from commercial real estate to commodities, financial institutions are massively experimenting with issuing and trading tokenized assets on blockchain infrastructures. BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and virtually all major investment banks have already launched tokenization projects. What was missing until now was regulatory certainty—and that is precisely what this Anglo-American alignment is beginning to provide.

The British Treasury report citing Ripple as a convergence model is particularly revealing of the direction regulatory thinking is taking. Ripple, with its settlement network based on the XRP Ledger, offers a hybrid model that combines the advantages of blockchain—speed, transparency, immutability—with the requirements of the traditional financial system in terms of compliance, governance, and control. This model of “convergence” between traditional finance and decentralized finance is precisely what regulators in both countries seem to want to promote.

The implications of this alignment are considerable for the entire crypto ecosystem. First, it provides a reference framework for financial institutions that were still hesitant to venture into tokenization due to a lack of regulatory visibility. Second, it sets a precedent: other jurisdictions may follow the Anglo-American model, or conversely seek to offer an alternative to attract capital. Finally, it implicitly validates the idea that blockchain technology has a place at the heart of the global financial infrastructure, and not merely on its periphery.

Markets immediately reacted to this announcement. Tokens associated with tokenization infrastructure and settlement protocols experienced upward movements. More broadly, the overall sentiment in crypto markets improved, with investors interpreting this news as a strong signal of continued institutional adoption. Bitcoin was trading around $64,905 at the time of this publication, while Ethereum was exchanging for $1,886—levels that reflect a market in a consolidation phase after a period of volatility.

However, enthusiasm must be tempered by recalling that the announced regulatory alignment is not yet a formal agreement. For now, it is a convergence of views and a coordination of regulatory initiatives, not a bilateral treaty or automatic mutual recognition of licenses. Operational details remain to...