US and UK Treasury publish joint 10-point roadmap on cross-border tokenized assets and stablecoins

Author: Dr. Guneet Kaur Reading Time: 4 minutes

Key Takeaways

• Stablecoins must be backed one-to-one by high-quality liquid assets, with reserves segregated from issuer funds in both jurisdictions.
• A private-sector working group will test cross-border tokenization; the SEC and FCA will jointly explore easier capital raising.
• No named issuers, no automatic mutual recognition; the framework sets direction, with domestic law still governing each token.

Overview

The US Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury published a joint 10-point roadmap on July 14 through the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future — a bilateral coordination mechanism established in September 2025 by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The roadmap is not a new law.

It identifies areas where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Bank of England plan to coordinate more closely. It also sets out shared positions on reserve standards, cross-border access pathways, and insolvency protections for stablecoin holders.

Four of the 10 recommendations address digital assets directly. The remainder covers traditional capital markets, including derivatives supervision, market data transparency, and cross-border capital raising — giving the document scope beyond crypto while anchoring its headline commitments in stablecoin and tokenization policy.

Stablecoins: What Both Governments Agreed To

The joint stablecoin statement is the most operationally significant section. Both governments affirmed that:

• Stablecoins presented as money must be backed at least one-to-one by high-quality liquid assets.
• Reserves must be segregated from the issuer's own funds and held to the benefit of token holders.

Both governments are committed to avoiding prudential requirements that impose disproportionately high levels of ring-fenced capital within their own jurisdictions — in response to industry concerns that fragmented reserve rules would force issuers to maintain duplicate collateral pools on both sides of the Atlantic.

Insolvency Framework

The insolvency framework commitment is the detail most relevant to institutional adoption. Both governments affirmed their intent to create frameworks that give stablecoin holders a clear, protected legal claim to reserves in the event of issuer insolvency, including priority over other creditors. That protection does not currently exist in explicit statutory form in either jurisdiction.

Cross-Border Access

The framework endorses a pathway for stablecoins authorized in one jurisdiction to access the market of the other, subject to each country's domestic laws and supervisory approval. No automatic mutual recognition is granted.

A GENIUS Act-compliant US issuer and an FCA-authorized UK issuer can expect a defined route into each other's markets — rather than a blank-page regulatory process — but each token still faces domestic licensing standards and supervisory approval in the target jurisdiction.

Tokenization: Private Working Group and SEC-FCA Coordination

The roadmap calls for:

• A private-sector-led working group to test cross-border tokenization use cases between US and UK participants.
• The SEC and FCA to jointly explore ways to make cross-border capital raising easier, building on their existing memorandum of understanding.

Regulators will also assess whether stablecoins or tokenized money market funds could serve as collateral in financial markets — a question directly relevant to BlackRock's BUIDL and Fidelity International's FI.