
$GRVT BitcoinWorldLloyds survey: 71% of UK finance leaders expect tokenization shift
Nearly three-quarters of senior decision-makers at major UK financial institutions believe tokenization will reshape financial services, according to an annual survey by Lloyds Banking Group released on October 2, 2026. The poll of 100 executives across banks, insurers, asset managers and financial sponsors found that 71% expect blockchain-based representation of assets such as cash, bonds and funds to alter how the sector operates, as Cointelegraph reported.
Lloyds’ tenth annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey found 71% of UK finance leaders expect tokenization to reshape financial services. Faster payments and settlement was the most cited benefit at 60%, ahead of improved collateral and liquidity management at 41%. Key facts
Lloyds polled 100 senior decision-makers at UK banks, insurers, asset managers, financial sponsors and wealth managers for its tenth annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey.
Faster payments and settlement was the top perceived benefit of tokenization, named by 60% of respondents, while 41% pointed to better collateral and liquidity management.
77% of those surveyed now treat investment in new technology as a growth priority, up from 41% in 2025, and 64% plan to raise capital expenditure over the next 12 months.
Lloyds has already settled $750,000 in live payment obligations using USDC in a seven-day pilot with Visa, with funds reaching the card network in under an hour, including outside banking hours and over a weekend.
A UK Finance interbank trial reported by crypto.news on September 24 included two remortgage transactions involving Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays, in which funds were locked during the property process and released automatically on completion.
Where UK institutions see the value
Rob Hale, co-head of global markets at Lloyds, framed the shift as a move from isolated experiments to shared plumbing. The next phase, he said, is about turning individual use cases into infrastructure that works at scale, supported by the interoperability and common standards needed to connect digital and traditional markets.
Lloyds argued that putting assets and payments onto digital rails could release capital tied up while transactions settle, freeing those resources for other uses. Faster settlement, in the bank’s description, would also cut the operational effort involved in financial processes by allowing transactions to execute automatically once agreed conditions are met.
The direction of travel is visible in the bank’s own pilots. In its Visa settlement trial, reported on October 1, Lloyds booked obligations through its Corporate Markets branch in Jersey, converted them into USDC obtained via Archax, and transferred the stablecoin to Visa in the United States. Lloyds ran its own Canton node while Visa settled on a separate public blockchain, a structure that tested transfers across different networks rather than requiring both parties on the same chain. Peter Left, Lloyds’ head of digital assets, said the live payments let the bank examine those capabilities in a real transaction setting.
Separately, UK Finance’s interbank tokenized deposit work — involving Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander, with support from Quant, EY and Linklaters — examined whether digital representations of sterling deposits could move between separate banks. One test involving three banks, including HSBC, simulated an online marketplace purchase in which funds were reserved in the buyer’s account until goods were confirmed as arrived; no physical goods changed hands.
Policy is moving in parallel
The survey’s findings land alongside a broader government and regulatory push. The Bank of England proposed extending its core settlement infrastructure toward near-24/7 availability in May, and a subsequent government payments blueprint called for tokenized and traditional money to operate inside an interoperable system.
In July, a government-backed industry task force estimated that UK leadership in tokenized finance could add as much as £33 billion ($44 billion) to annual economic output by 2035, while calling for a first tokenized government bond by early 2027. The task force comprises 54 firms across nine action groups covering settlement, collateral, legal standards and market access, and its plan also targets an end-to-end tokenized repo transaction by spring 2027. Those projections depend on adoption rates, the regulatory environment and the UK capturing a share of the global tokenized asset market.
Coordination with Washington has advanced too. In July, the US and UK treasuries recommended creating a private-sector group to test cross-border uses of tokenized assets and urged regulators on both sides to identify shared approaches. A follow-up report on August 12, covered by crypto.news, described a proposed group that would run for one year, test cross-border transactions and share technical and regulatory practices with authorities. Under those recommendations, the SEC, CFTC, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England would examine common approaches to settlement finality, regulatory treatment and market infrastructure, and would separately consider whether stablecoins and tokenized money-market funds could qualify as margin collateral at central counterparties.
Why it matters
The survey suggests tokenization has moved past curiosity among UK institutions and into planning. For corporate treasurers and settlement teams, the practical stakes are working capital and certainty: if funds can move in minutes rather than days and outside banking hours, less liquidity needs to sit idle waiting for transactions to complete.
For retail and business customers, the near-term changes will be quiet rather than dramatic — faster completion of mortgage, marketplace and cross-border transactions rather than new consumer products. The bigger question is competitive: the same task force warning about leadership implies that if the UK’s infrastructure and rulemaking lag, the activity and the associated economic output could concentrate elsewhere.
Not every detail is settled between the reports. Cointelegraph and crypto.news agree on the headline 71% figure, the 60% and 41% benefit rankings and Hale’s comments, but crypto.news adds several details not carried in the Cointelegraph piece — the jump in respondents treating technology investment as a growth priority, the 64% capital expenditure figure, and the planned company, rulebook and governance framework that UK Finance intends to establish ahead of three digital bond issues in the first quarter of 2027. Crypto.news also reported the September 24 interbank remortgage tests involving Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays, which Cointelegraph did not mention.
What to watch
The concrete milestones sit in 2027: the task force’s target of a first tokenized UK government bond by early 2027, an end-to-end tokenized repo transaction by spring 2027, and the three digital bond issues scheduled by participating UK Finance banks in the first quarter. UK Finance’s plan to stand up a dedicated company, rulebook and governance framework is the nearer-term marker of whether tokenized deposits become shared market infrastructure or remain a set of point solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many UK finance leaders did Lloyds survey?
Lloyds Banking Group polled 100 senior decision-makers at major UK banks, insurers, asset managers, financial sponsors and wealth managers for the tenth edition of its annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey.
What did respondents say was tokenization’s biggest benefit?
Faster payments and settlement topped the list at 60%, ahead of improved collateral and liquidity management, which 41% of respondents selected.
What tokenization tests have UK banks already run?
Lloyds worked with Archax and Canton Network on a transaction using tokenized deposits to buy a tokenized UK government bond. UK Finance members, including Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays, also tested tokenized deposits for remortgage payments, with a separate HSBC-involved trial simulating an online marketplace purchase.
When could the UK see its first digital government bond?
A government-backed task force has called for a first tokenized government bond by early 2027, alongside an end-to-end tokenized repo transaction by spring 2027.
This post Lloyds survey: 71% of UK finance leaders expect tokenization shift first appeared on BitcoinWorld.

$GRVT European stablecoin issuers are stepping up efforts to offer regulated US dollar tokens, arguing that the EU’s push to strengthen the euro does not eliminate the practical need for dollar liquidity in cross-border commerce and payments.
On Wednesday, the German issuer AllUnity launched its MiCA-regulated US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDAU, expanding its lineup beyond euro-denominated offerings. AllUnity CEO Alexander Höptner told Cointelegraph that in global trade and FX markets, the dollar remains a central “glue” for settlement—an outcome that cannot be replaced simply by issuing more euro tokens.
Key takeaways
AllUnity launched USDAU, a MiCA-regulated dollar stablecoin, to address real-world dollar settlement demand in Europe.
Issuers argue euro strengthening doesn’t remove dollar needs for cross-border payments between Europe, the UK, and North America.
Industry players emphasize regulation over token choice, saying policymakers can shape issuers and rules even if dollar demand remains.
Europe-issued dollar stablecoins are still small relative to major global stablecoins, according to CoinGecko.
Why issuers are doubling down on dollar tokens
AllUnity’s USDAU launch reflects a broader push among European stablecoin companies to make dollar liquidity available in a regulated framework. Höptner’s argument is straightforward: for European corporates that need to move value globally, euro-only stablecoin access can be insufficient when counterparties, pricing, and settlement cycles are dollar-centric.
The push also comes as the EU continues to reassess parts of its regulatory approach to crypto. The article notes that the EU is reviewing its MiCA framework, while the European Central Bank (ECB) has continued raising concerns about stablecoins reinforcing the dollar’s dominance.
In that environment, issuers are framing dollar stablecoins not as a political preference, but as an operational requirement. Stable Mint CEO James Bennett said demand for dollar tokens in Europe reflects business needs rather than something policymakers can “steer” away from. In his view, the key controllable factor is which entities are allowed to issue to European users—and under what compliance rules.
Stable Mint provided metrics for its USDSM stablecoin, stating that as of Wednesday it had moved more than $380 million on-chain across 3.8 million transfers and was held by more than 2,600 addresses. Fiat Republic CEO Adam Bialy made a similar case, pointing to demand from crypto platforms and stablecoin businesses for dollar settlement that operates around the clock. He added that regulated dollar tokens can reduce friction in cross-border settlement between Europe, the UK, and North America.
“Not euro versus dollar,” but a regulated choice
Some participants argue the debate should not be framed as a competition between euro and dollar stablecoins. Societe Generale-FORGE (SG-Forge), the digital asset subsidiary of French banking group Societe Generale, said its stance is to support a diversified and resilient ecosystem where users can access both euro- and dollar-denominated digital cash solutions—so long as they operate within a robust regulatory structure.
A spokesperson for SG-Forge told Cointelegraph that the goal is not to oppose dollar stablecoins, but to ensure that users can choose among denominations while staying inside the compliance boundaries set for regulated issuers.
SG-Forge also highlighted its own dollar product: USD CoinVertible (USDCV), launched in 2025. The company said it has attracted interest for applications including trading, settlement, collateral management, and treasury operations. The implication is that dollar stablecoins are being positioned as a practical tool for institutional workflows, not merely as a retail convenience.
Where Europe-issued dollar stablecoins stand today
Despite growing interest from European issuers, the market size of locally issued dollar stablecoins remains small compared to dominant global tokens.
The article cites CoinGecko data placing USDSM and USDCV at roughly $13 million each, versus $184 billion for Tether USDt (USDT) and $74 billion for Circle’s USDC. This gap underscores the central challenge for European issuers: even with regulatory clarity under MiCA, the liquidity and network effects behind established dollar stablecoins are difficult to replicate quickly.
CoinGecko’s stablecoin category data is presented in the article with a reference to a comparison chart for USDCV and USDSM against USDT and USDC. The numbers suggest that while new entrants may grow, scale is still heavily concentrated among the most widely adopted brands.
AllUnity’s Höptner frames the opportunity differently, arguing the goal is not “US versus Europe,” but building interoperable financial infrastructure—connecting dollar liquidity with European banks and businesses—within a regulatory framework. That view effectively treats the current imbalance as a starting point rather than a reason to abandon the effort.
What to watch next
For traders, developers, and corporates in Europe, the next signal will be whether these MiCA-regulated dollar tokens can convert real demand into durable liquidity—especially as the EU continues to refine MiCA and as central-bank scrutiny remains focused on stablecoins’ role in reinforcing dollar dominance.
This article was originally published as EU Issuers Argue Euro Stablecoin Falls Short for Global USD Liquidity on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.