LSE and Payward to Launch Tokenized UK Equities by 2027

The London Stock Exchange is teaming up with Payward, parent company to several digital asset platforms, to introduce tokenized public equities in the UK. The move represents a major convergence of traditional capital markets and blockchain infrastructure.

The tokenized shares will maintain full shareholder rights, legal protections, and governance standards that underpin conventional public markets, while enabling broader investor access and new fundraising routes for issuers. Settlement and asset servicing will run through LSEG's Digital Securities Depository (LSEG DSD), pending regulatory approval.

The tokenized equity offering ties into the exchange's broader digital transformation strategy, connecting to several technical engines LSEG has recently announced:

• LSE 24: A 24-hour trading venue supporting continuous, round-the-clock execution.
• Digital Securities Depository (LSEG DSD): Regulated infrastructure for issuance, transfer, and asset servicing of digital securities.
• Digital Settlement House (LSEG DiSH): An open-access platform enabling instant, programmatic settlement across on-chain and off-chain payment networks using commercial bank deposits held as DiSH Cash.

Through the Payward alliance, the LSE will test how wallet-based interactions, digital-native access, and partner custody systems can plug into the exchange's regulated ecosystem. The architecture will allow issuers and investors to use public or private blockchains while meeting strict AML and operational resilience requirements.

As a core milestone, the London Stock Exchange plans to list and trade xStocks on LSE 24 starting in 2027, subject to regulatory clearance.

xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenized representations of publicly traded shares. While tracking the exact performance of the underlying equity, they introduce the speed, programmability, and continuous access of distributed ledgers. Unlike traditional equities confined to legacy brokerage accounts, xStocks can move freely between centralized exchanges, self-custodied Web3 wallets, and authorized on-chain applications.

Tokenisation has the potential to change how investors access, and how issuers use, financial markets, but it must develop in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets.

Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc and head of digital and securities markets, LSEG, said:

By working with Payward, and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure ecosystem, we are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets.

The partnership signals a permanent shift away from the view that public capital markets and blockchain networks are at odds. By deploying tokenized equities on shared institutional rails, the two firms are establishing a scalable model for cross-border asset mobility.

For years the assumption was that crypto and traditional finance were on a collision course, and one of them would have to lose. That was never the real story. The real opportunity is what happens when they run on the same rails.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward, added:

Bringing London-listed companies onchain as xStocks is the start of that, demonstrating how investors can access public markets in new ways… Doing this with an institution the calibre of the London Stock Exchange is what turns that vision from an idea into lasting market infrastructure.