U.S. and UK Treasuries Publish Recommendations on Digital Asset and Capital Market Collaboration

On July 14, the U.S. Treasury and HM Treasury published a set of recommendations prepared by the “Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future” (the “TTMF”)[1] to advance financial services collaboration between the United States and the United Kingdom, focusing on digital assets and capital markets.[2] The U.S. Treasury and HM Treasury created the TTMF in September 2025 to strengthen bilateral collaboration with respect to digital asset innovation and capital markets.

In relation to digital assets, there are five broad recommendations that are intended to “improve connectivity, enable more efficient and transparent markets, and inform potential alignment of regulatory frameworks.” The recommendations include engaging a private sector-led group to focus on cross-border use cases for tokenized assets, identifying common approaches to the regulatory treatment of tokenized assets, supporting financial innovation through digital financial services policy frameworks, supporting the targeted review of standards related to the prudential treatment of cryptoassets at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision such that the standards are “futureproofed, technology-neutral, and evidence-based,” and publishing a joint statement on stablecoins.

In relation to capital markets, there are five broad recommendations that are intended to “deepen even further the strong links” between the U.S. and UK markets. The recommendations include exploring options to facilitate cross-border capital raising, opportunities for collaboration relating to consolidated tapes and a substituted compliance determination for UK swap execution facilities in lieu of existing temporary no-action relief. The TTMF also notes that the SEC staff will consider the UK’s standards applicable to UK foreign private issuers (FPIs) when developing reforms to the U.S. FPI framework and collaborating with international efforts to strengthen the bodies that set globally accepted accounting and auditing standards.

In accordance with one of the TTMF recommendations, the U.S. Treasury and HM Treasury concurrently issued a joint statement on stablecoins (the “Joint Statement”).[3] In the Joint Statement, the U.S. and the UK governments affirm a “shared view on stablecoins,” which is “intended to promote convergence” between the regulatory regimes in the two countries, where appropriate, “and to provide market participants with greater confidence and clarity upon which to pursue financial innovation.” The “shared view” extends to the following, among other topics:

• the importance of enabling the use of stablecoins in cross-border finance;
• the need to facilitate the coexistence and circulation of different forms of digital money solutions, including stablecoins, tokenized deposits and similar instruments;
• the desirability of integrating well-regulated stablecoins into banking and other financial services relationships;
• key legal, regulatory and supervisory priorities with respect to stablecoins, including promoting clarity and consistency across the U.S. and UK regulatory regimes and avoiding unnecessary fragmentation across jurisdictions; and
• avoiding “burdensome constraints” with respect to stablecoins, including “reserve requirements that are disproportionate to risk and that create unwarranted barriers to entry.”

The Joint Statement aligns with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the “GENIUS Act”), which was enacted in the United States in July 2025 and permits the Secretary of the Treasury to create and implement reciprocal arrangements between the United States and jurisdictions with payment stablecoin regulatory regimes that are “comparable” to the requirements established under the GENIUS Act.[4] Many of the shared views expressed in the Joint Statement correspond to requirements that the GENIUS Act imposes on PPSIs, including that stablecoins “held out as money should be fully backed, on at least a one-to-one basis, by high-quality, liquid assets  … clearly defined in each country’s stablecoin regulatory framework,”[5] that “issuers of regulated stablecoins should always expect to redeem related obligations in a timely manner and with clear disclosure of policies on the nature of legal rights granted to holders”[6] and that reserve assets “should be segregated from the issuer’s own funds and safeguarded to the benefit of stablecoin holders.”[7]

The Joint Statement also aligns with UK requirements on stablecoin issuers,[8] particularly in respect of reserve assets, custody and segregation, redemption rights and disclosures. The UK government is also consulting on modernizing the UK’s regulation of payment services to include stablecoins.[9] The same approach may be extended to certain stablecoins issued outside the UK “where HM Treasury formally ‘recognises’ the regulatory framework of that overseas jurisdiction as providing similar outcomes to the UK’s.”[10] The Joint Statement indicates that HM Treasury may intend such recognition for the U.S. regulatory framework, subject to a more detailed assessment of the U.S. framework. Stablecoins issued outside of the UK will otherwise be regulated through new intermediary activities (i.e., dealing) in qualifying cryptoassets.