UK at a Crossroads: GBBC & APPG on Digital Markets Digital Money Publish "A Vision for the UK in the Global Digital-Asset Economy"

The legislation is settled, the major Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consultations have closed and are with the regulators for review, the authorization gateway opens this September, and the machinery is being built.

Here is the question GBBC keeps coming back to, and it is the one behind the paper we are publishing today with the APPG on Digital Markets Digital Money. A Vision for the UK in the Global Digital-Asset Economy: “What is this regime actually for?”

The UK has the raw material, market infrastructure, deep institutional capital, a legal system trusted worldwide, and since late 2025, digital assets recognized as property in law. However, what it has not done yet is say out loud where all of this is meant to lead.

That is the gap, and the next 18 months will close it one way or another. Treat digital assets as infrastructure modernization, and you get real competitiveness with faster settlement, lower post-trade friction, markets that work across time zones. Treat them as a risk to be contained, and the rules may come out technically sound but disconnected from any economic purpose.

Other major jurisdictions have already made this choice. The UK can lead here, it has nearly everything it needs to, except the strategic direction that ties it together.

This is a vision rather than a blueprint, and deliberately so. The ambition is set, the regulators are doing serious work, and our aim is to connect that work to a destination worth reaching.

We will be discussing the paper in Parliament during tonight’s GBBC x APPG on Digital Markets Digital Money reception with our co-chair Lord Kulveer Ranger and our supporters, Paul Hastings and ioBuilders.

Read the paper here.

Thank you to the contributors: Diego Ballon Ossio (Clifford Chance), Kate Scott (Clifford Chance), James Pollock (Canton Foundation & Digital Asset), Kylie Poole (Chainlink Labs), Tom Jansson (IOTA Foundation), Julie Ng (Moody's Corporation), Nikolai Dienerowitz (Oliver Wyman), Fred Buret (Recoveris), Mark Aruliah (Elliptic), Yalini Isweran (The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation - DTCC), Somerset Pheasant (Droit), and Dr. Vic Arulchandran (Deutsche Börse Group).

What role should the UK play in the global digital-asset economy? We would love to hear your thoughts!