CoinDesk
A UK Treasury-backed report has put Ripple at the centre of the country's plan to move tokenized repo, fixed income and fund markets onchain over the next 12 months, naming the firm not as a crypto entrant to be managed but as a credentialed infrastructure provider the strategy leans on. The report, authored by wholesale digital markets champion Chris Woolard, sketches a hybrid model that layers permissioned institutional networks on top of permissionless chains to capture common liquidity while keeping compliance controls in place.
The strategy carries a sizable economic pitch: productivity gains and cost efficiencies could lift annual UK economic output by 33 billion pounds ($44 billion) and add 14 billion pounds to the annual tax take within a decade. The report anchors the case in converging infrastructure, citing Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road (now Ripple Prime), which holds both an investment-firm licence and FCA cryptoasset registration, and Santander UK's white-label use of Ripple rails for cross-border payments.
Why it matters
The report is the clearest signal yet that a G7 finance ministry is treating permissionless chains as legitimate settlement substrate for wholesale markets, rather than as a parallel system to be contained. BlackRock's BUIDL money market fund, issued on Ethereum with a Securitize compliance wrapper, is held up as the template: a regulated product living on a public chain but operating inside a permissioned compliance shell.
The framing matters for crypto because it reframes the policy question from "how do we restrict public chains?" to "how do permissioned and permissionless layers interoperate under a single regulatory roof?" The U.S. is on a slower timeline, with the Clarity Act still stuck and full stablecoin regimes in both jurisdictions not expected until 2027.
Market impact
Ripple gains a structural endorsement at the policy table, not just a commercial win. Hidden Road's dual FCA registration turns the unit into the cleanest on-ramp for institutional prime services across both TradFi and digital asset markets in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
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What did the UK Treasury report say about Ripple?
The Treasury-backed report named Ripple as a credentialed infrastructure provider for the UK's plan to move tokenized repo, fixed income and funds onchain over the next 12 months, citing the firm's Hidden Road acquisition and Santander UK partnership as proof of TradFi-crypto convergence.
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What is the hybrid model proposed for UK wholesale digital markets?
The report proposes layering permissioned institutional networks on top of permissionless chains, so common liquidity flows through public infrastructure while compliance controls sit in a permissioned wrapper above. BlackRock's BUIDL fund on Ethereum with Securitize is cited as the template.
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How much economic benefit could tokenization bring to the UK?
Woolard's team estimates productivity gains and cost efficiencies could lift annual UK economic output by 33 billion pounds ($44 billion) and add 14 billion pounds to the annual tax take within a decade.
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What settlement-finality risk does the report flag for public chains?
The report notes that a confirmed transaction on a permissionless chain can in theory be reversed by a chain reorganization, introducing a settlement-finality risk that traditional wholesale infrastructures do not face.
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When does the UK crypto regulatory regime under FSMA launch?
Applications under the Financial Services and Markets Act open on Sept. 30, with full FSMA crypto authorization regimes launching in October 2027, putting the UK ahead of the US on wholesale digital markets policy this cycle.
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