Key Takeaways from Digital Assets Week London 2026

I attended Digital Assets Week in London on 6 and 7 October. On day one, The Rt Hon Lucy Rigby KC MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, set out the UK Government’s ambitions for digital assets and tokenised markets. On day two, Sasha Mills, Executive Director of Financial Market Infrastructure at the Bank of England outlined what the next phase could look like.

Rigby’s presence, and the substance of a keynote of more than fifteen minutes dedicated to the topic, felt notable in itself. The central theme was striking: the Government sees the shift from electronic to digital markets as potentially as consequential as the earlier move from paper to electronic trading.

For me, that represents an important political endorsement of digital markets as the next evolutionary step. The industry has spent years waiting for the regulatory clarity needed to support wider adoption, and the mood in the room felt ready to move, once the detail is in place. 

1. The direction of travel is taking shape

Government is putting elements of its framework into practice. Rigby pointed to the Digital Securities Sandbox, where two firms have received approval to operate live digital securities depositories. She also highlighted forthcoming secondary legislation and implementation of the UK regulatory framework for crypto assets and stablecoins.

Secondary legislation is the step many firms have been waiting for before committing to broader adoption.

2. Government is backing its ambition with practical initiatives

The DIGIT pilot, a digitally native UK government debt issuance, is planned for Q1 2027, with six firms appointed as joint lead managers.

Rigby also positioned digital forms of money, including regulated stablecoins and tokenised commercial bank deposits, as part of developing genuinely digital markets. As she put it, there is little point transforming one half of a transaction if the other half remains dependent on old technology.

3. The bigger challenge is connecting fragmented initiatives

Much of the activity in the UK and elsewhere still operates in isolation.

Rigby described the Government’s initiatives as different components of the same strategy, and highlighted the need for standards, interoperability between platforms and connectivity across borders.

It is a clear signal for market operators that flexible infrastructure matters: infrastructure able to adapt as digital-market models evolve and to link into a wider network of venues.

4. The next phase is about moving from experimentation to scale

That message was reinforced on day two by Sasha Mills, who described the next phase as a pivot from experimentation to scale, and from individual projects to connected markets.

She confirmed that the Bank of England and the FCA are developing a joint tokenisation roadmap, due before the end of the year, to show how regulatory and infrastructure initiatives fit together.

Mills also looked beyond the UK. Jurisdictions need not adopt the same market structure, she said, provided there is cooperation on outcomes and interoperability. Firms should be able to operate across borders with confidence, without navigating fragmented frameworks.

Preparing for digital markets at scale

My overriding impression was of real political commitment. How quickly that translates into the conditions for widespread adoption remains the open question.

Whilst the signals are clear, what happens next depends on regulation and infrastructure developing in step with the market.

If you are considering how your market infrastructure needs to evolve for digital assets and tokenised markets, get in touch with Exberry to find out more.