US, UK treasuries align rules on stablecoins and tokenization

The US Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury released four joint recommendations on digital assets through the Transatlantic Taskforce for the Markets of the Future. The guidance focuses on establishing regulatory alignment for stablecoins and creating shared frameworks for tokenized finance.

For stablecoins, the two governments are targeting a "dynamic stablecoin market across borders." The joint statement said both nations intend to tailor their regulatory requirements to achieve "comparable outcomes for comparable risks and activities." This approach is designed to maintain financial stability while preventing market distortions or creating disincentives for cross-border competition, a key concern for global banks operating in both jurisdictions.

On tokenization, the task force recommended that US financial agencies and the Bank of England develop shared regulatory approaches. It also proposed establishing a private-sector-led group specifically focused on testing cross-border use cases for tokenized assets. While the joint statement did not explicitly name the US GENIUS Act, its assertion that stablecoins must be "fully backed, on at least a one-to-one basis, by high-quality, liquid assets" directly mirrors the US law signed last year. That legislation is currently awaiting regulatory approval before it takes effect in January 2027.

The regulatory push follows a separate report from a UK government-backed industry task force detailing the potential economic upside of these technologies. The analysis projects that tokenization could add up to $44 billion to the UK's annual economic output by 2035. However, this estimate is conditional on the UK successfully securing a position as a leading global jurisdiction for the technology, tokenization scaling globally, and domestic adoption increasing in line with major international peers.

To realize these economic gains, the industry report urges the UK government to issue tokenized bonds by the first quarter of 2027 and begin testing financial transactions on blockchain infrastructure. For institutional investors and capital markets executives, the transatlantic alignment signals that regulators are actively preparing the plumbing for a new era of digital asset settlement. Harmonized rules reduce the compliance costs of issuing digital assets across the Atlantic, removing a major barrier to institutional adoption.