Regulation and compliance

DIGIT, HM Treasury's planned tokenized gilt due by Q1 2027, does not hinge on blockchain readiness — it hinges on a missing cash leg. Only four sterling stablecoins exist, the largest capping near $34 million, per CoinDesk. The FCA's full cryptoasset regime does not commence until 25 October 2027, leaving settlement rails without a ready cash asset.

The FCA, under chief executive Nikhil Rathi, is embedding agentic AI into supervision — a 'first responder' screening about a billion rows of wholesale-market data daily — as HM Treasury's October 2025 consolidation folds roughly 60,000 additional firms into its anti-money-laundering remit. The driver is a documented capacity gap, not innovation for its own sake.