London Stock Exchange Targets Rights-Preserving Model for Tokenised Public Equities

London Stock Exchange Targets Rights-Preserving Model for Tokenised Public Equities

(IN BRIEF) London Stock Exchange has announced plans to launch UK tokenised equity structures and has formed a partnership with Payward to explore how regulated market infrastructure and digital-native distribution can support tokenised public equity markets. The initiative will assess a UK structure designed to broaden access to capital markets while preserving shareholder rights, protections and governance standards, with LSEG’s Digital Securities Depository potentially supporting settlement and asset servicing, subject to regulatory approval. The work forms part of LSEG’s wider digital market infrastructure strategy, including LSE 24, LSEG DSD and LSEG DiSH. London Stock Exchange and Payward will explore how wallet-based interaction, digital-native access and partner infrastructure could connect with regulated capital markets and on-chain ecosystems while meeting obligations such as AML and operational resilience. Subject to regulatory approval, London Stock Exchange also intends to list xStocks in 2027 and begin trading them on LSE 24.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 1-Sep-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — London Stock Exchange has announced plans to launch UK tokenised equity structures and has formed a partnership with Payward to explore the next stage of tokenised public equity markets.

Payward is a unified financial infrastructure platform working to advance an open global financial system.

The collaboration will examine how regulated market infrastructure and digital-native distribution can support the development of tokenised public equities.

London Stock Exchange is assessing a UK tokenised equity structure intended to broaden access to capital markets while preserving the shareholder rights, protections and governance standards that underpin public markets.

The work will consider how LSEG’s Digital Securities Depository, or LSEG DSD, could support settlement and asset servicing, subject to regulatory approval.

The initiative is part of LSEG’s broader work to modernise market infrastructure and support the digitalisation of capital markets.

This wider programme includes LSE 24, LSEG’s recently announced 24-hour trading venue, the LSEG Digital Securities Depository, and the Digital Settlement House, or LSEG DiSH.

By combining established market infrastructure with emerging digital technologies, London Stock Exchange aims to help create a rights-preserving model for tokenised public equities.

The model is designed to expand investor access, support issuers seeking innovative routes to market and greater insight, and enable more efficient movement of assets across increasingly digital financial markets.

London Stock Exchange said the approach also seeks to minimise isolated pools of liquidity as digital markets continue to develop.

Partnership with Payward

The partnership with Payward will focus on how digital-native access, wallet-based interaction and partner infrastructure could connect with LSEG’s regulated market ecosystem.

The companies will explore how this connectivity could create a smoother link between tokenised and traditional market infrastructure.

Together, London Stock Exchange and Payward will examine opportunities to connect regulated capital markets with on-chain ecosystems.

The work will consider how issuers and investors could make greater use of private and public blockchains while continuing to meet relevant regulatory obligations, including anti-money laundering requirements and operational resilience standards.

Separately, as part of the collaboration and subject to regulatory approval, London Stock Exchange intends in 2027 to list xStocks and begin trading them on LSE 24.

xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenised representations of publicly traded shares.

They are designed to track the performance of the underlying security while adding blockchain-enabled speed, programmability and around-the-clock access.

They can move between centralised exchanges, self-custodied wallets and on-chain applications.

Leadership comments

Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc and Head of Digital and Securities Markets at LSEG, said tokenisation has the potential to change how investors access financial markets and how issuers use them.

She said this development must take place in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets.

Hoggett said that by working with Payward and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure ecosystem, London Stock Exchange is exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that support public markets.

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, said the opportunity is not a conflict between crypto and traditional finance, but the possibility of both operating on shared rails.

He said tokenisation changes how markets work, including how shares are issued, traded, settled and moved.

Sethi said bringing London-listed companies on-chain as xStocks would demonstrate how investors can access public markets in new ways.

He added that equities capable of around-the-clock trading, broad investor reach and price integrity linked to the underlying security show what may become possible when securities move onto blockchain rails.

Sethi said the next step is connecting these new forms of access with trusted market infrastructure, and described the partnership with London Stock Exchange as a step toward turning that vision into durable market infrastructure.

Digital market infrastructure

The Digital Securities Depository is LSEG’s digital settlement and servicing infrastructure for tokenised securities.

It is being developed to support the issuance, recording, transfer, asset servicing and settlement of digital securities within a regulated infrastructure model.

The Digital Settlement House is LSEG’s open-access platform designed to enable programmatic and instantaneous settlement between independent payment networks, both on-chain and off-chain.

Through commercial bank deposits held on the DiSH ledger, known as DiSH Cash, the service enables 24/7 movement of commercial bank money across multiple currencies and jurisdictions.

It is designed to support payment-versus-payment and delivery-versus-payment settlement, providing a real cash leg for foreign exchange and digital asset transactions and settlements.

Notes to editors

Digital Securities Depository (DSD) is LSEG’s digital settlement and servicing infrastructure for tokenised securities. It is being developed to support the issuance, recording, transfer, asset servicing and settlement of digital securities within a regulated infrastructure model.

Digital Settlement House (DiSH) is LSEG’s open-access platform which enables programmatic and instantaneous settlement between independent payment networks, both on and off chain. Through commercial bank deposits held on the DiSH ledger (DiSH Cash), the service enables the 24/7 instantaneous movement of commercial bank money in multiple currencies and jurisdictions, PVP and DVP, providing a real cash leg for FX and digital asset transactions and settlements.

[1] xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenised representations of publicly traded shares. They track the performance of the underlying security while adding the speed, programmability, and around-the-clock access of blockchain. xStocks can move between centralized exchanges, self-custodied wallets, and onchain applications, giving holders utility that a share sitting in a traditional brokerage account cannot currently offer. | Back to Note 1

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SOURCE: LSEG