Two of the world's largest financial centres, the U.S. and the UK, have mapped out a shared path to bring their rules for stablecoins, tokenized assets and digital money into closer alignment. The goal is straightforward, to let blockchain-based finance move more easily across the Atlantic between the two countries.
The effort took shape on Tuesday in the form of 10 recommendations, published by HM Treasury and the U.S. Treasury. They come from the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future, a body that Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set up during President Trump's UK state visit in September 2025.
What the Recommendations Cover
Of the 10 recommendations, five deal directly with digital assets, while the other five address traditional capital markets. Crucially, none of them are binding rules. That leaves each country to complete its own regulatory process, but under a shared direction.
On the digital-assets front, the taskforce wants regulators, namely the Bank of England, the FCA, the SEC and the CFTC, to settle on common approaches to tokenized assets. That includes how tokenized securities reach settlement finality, and whether stablecoins and tokenized money market funds can be used as collateral at clearing houses. The recommendations also call for a private sector-led group to spend a year testing cross-border tokenization use cases. On top of that, they envision a "multi-money ecosystem" in which stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits and other forms of digital money can coexist.
A Joint Statement on Stablecoins
Alongside the recommendations, the two governments are drafting a joint statement on stablecoins. It backs a dynamic cross-border market and holds that payment stablecoins should be fully backed, on at least a one-to-one basis, by high-quality liquid assets. Those principles closely mirror the U.S. GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed last year. A fifth recommendation asks both sides to press for a technology-neutral review of how the Basel Committee treats banks' crypto exposures.
Racing to Catch Europe
This push for alignment arrives as both countries build out their own regimes. The U.S. is implementing the GENIUS Act ahead of a 2027 effective date, while the UK's own cryptoasset regime is due to take effect in October 2027. Both are working to catch up with the European Union, whose MiCA rules have been fully in force since the end of 2024 and are set to be revised in 2027. The recommendations, however, stop short of mutual recognition. In practice, that means a stablecoin licensed in one country would still have to clear the other's rules before it could operate there.
Crypto Firms Welcome the Move
Crypto companies welcomed the direction of travel. Katie Harries, Coinbase's head of policy for Europe, called the recommendations a "critical moment for transatlantic cooperation," pointing to the chance for the two financial centres to "reimagine global capital markets through tokenisation."
For the UK, the recommendations build on an ambition to "minimize frictions" between the two countries, an idea laid out by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby in May, when she suggested it "may well take the form of some forms of recognition or alignment." At the time, Rigby said digital assets carry the potential for a "complete transformation" of the country's markets, as the government advances stablecoin rules, an FCA-run stablecoin sandbox, and a consultation on a single framework for traditional and tokenized payments.
