BoE Paves Way for Digital Assets with Clear Guidance on Ownership

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a speech by Executive Director Sasha Mills on the future of digital assets. The speech, given on October 1st, 2026, highlights the need for clear answers about ownership and settlement finality in order for digital assets to become trusted, widely used, and commercially sustainable.

Mills emphasizes that the BoE does not see stability and innovation as being in conflict. She welcomes the Government's proposal to extend its secondary innovation objective to payment systems, and highlights the importance of tokenization needing coordinated change across the market, interoperable systems, and firm legal foundations.

The BoE is supporting responsible innovation through initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox, which allows firms to trade with real customers within meaningful limits. The sandbox has been expanded to include stablecoins as a settlement asset, and the DIGIT digital gilt could help speed up development of the wider ecosystem.