What UK founders taught me about tokenisation in six months
Six months ago I published a poll asking UK founders and investors where they stood on equity tokenisation. 18 people answered: 41 per cent were exploring it, 35 per cent were watching, and 18 per cent did not know where to start. It became the most read post on this site.
Over 15,000 people read it, seven commented, and eighteen messaged me for a conversation. Many asked the same question: where do I actually begin?
What I got right was that the gap was real. Founders were not waiting for the press to catch up. They wanted a plain account of what is happening and what it means for a company raising money in the UK, and, to my surprise, investors wanted the same. What I got wrong was how institutional first this still is, even as PISCES grows, as I covered when Crowdcube's PISCES pipeline hit £543 million.
What six months has shown
Tokenisation has stopped being a pitch and become plumbing. Week after week, the volume of news, announcements, partnerships and real action has accelerated across the sector.
This week Crédit Agricole Assurances said it had invested €100 million in a tokenised share of an Amundi money market fund, and BNY runs a blockchain based transfer agency covering $8.6 trillion in fund assets. PISCES has real companies on it, and the UK is building a £1 billion Scale up Fund. None of it is aimed at founders yet, but all of it is the infrastructure founders will end up using.
From the many tokenisation summits, conferences and events I have attended, on stage, in the networking rooms and over coffee, one thing is clear: as much technology as is needed now exists, and the process has moved from develop and build to vendor selection. Valuation and liquidity are still a challenge. Liquidity is discussed widely, but many also agree that not everything has to be liquid.
There is also a real and obvious shortage of case studies. The sector has clearly emerged from its phased pilot stage, and some big numbers are floating around in the headlines, but scale matters. On my own arithmetic, the €100 million insurer investment is about 0.004 per cent of Amundi's nearly €2,600 billion of assets under management. Real, and it matters, but small. One tasty cupcake does not make a country fayre.
Awareness is also more siloed than you might expect. I have reached out to many large financial organisations around the wave of blockchain and tokenisation activity, and senior people have told me, "crypto, blockchain, oh no, it is not something we are doing", when there may be live work under way elsewhere in the same organisation. In my experience there is often no wider, organisation level understanding of what is under exploration internally, or why. Perhaps, as with AI, adoption will arrive as a surprise for many, and their departments, teams and roles may change faster than they expect.
What I am still working out is the regulatory intent, and the missing clarity and peace of mind that goes with it. There is more than enough technology available and plenty of marketing from tech providers, yet it remains a real struggle for a founder to engage with tokenisation simply and confidently, even as the need to update an inefficient capital formation process grows.
Who this is for right now
What is clear at the moment is that companies looking to raise this way need to be ready. That means their company set up, their admin completed and in place, a clear proposition, and good answers to the many questions they are likely to be asked, by investors, platforms and advisers alike. Until case studies emerge and the processes are understood and established, this is probably not yet for pre MVP concepts or early ideas.
For those founders, my advice of "watch closely, don't rush" does not mean wait. It means getting ready: keep your cap table clean and your share classes documented, learn the vocabulary well enough to question a vendor, follow PISCES and the FCA's progress, and ask your investors and advisers where they stand. The founders who are comfortable when the plumbing arrives will be the ones who prepared early. The same is said about AI in fact.
Investors face the same questions from their side of the table: how a tokenised holding is valued, who can buy it, and what happens when someone wants out. Those answers will decide whether tokenisation helps with liquidity or simply moves the problem somewhere else.
What comes next
PISCES is growing. Crowdcube says £543 million of secondary share sales are working through its PISCES pipeline, and that the figure could reach £750 million across 29 listings over the next two quarters if current talks become completed deals. These are the company's own figures, and a pipeline is not completed sales, but I am confident the pipeline keeps growing and that adoption follows.
Regulatory clarity should improve. With the FCA cryptoauthorisation gateway opening on 30 September 2026, marking the start of the application window for firms seeking licenses under the new regime that goes live on 25 October 2027, I expect more clarity over the coming months and into next year, particularly once participants are confirmed and the outcomes of the sandbox activity have been reviewed and released.
The plumbing will reach startups. The question is whether today's institutional infrastructure reaches founders, and I believe it will, for sure. We are already seeing the direction of travel as more people at the founder stage begin to notice and engage with the innovation and with adoption. Secondary liquidity, for founders, early staff and early investors, looks like one of the first places that meeting will happen.
Case studies are what I most want to see from the likes of Onino, Lympid, Brikken and digi-shares. Not simply more property tokenisation, but game-changing, ambitious startups. I will cover extensively the first founders and issuers who go through the process and are open about the regulatory framework, what it cost, how long it took and who bought, and I will re-run the poll in six months to see how the 94 per cent has moved.
If you were in that 94 per cent in April, where are you now? Still exploring, or has something changed? What is the question you have been trying to answer that nothing you have read has properly addressed? And if your company is ready and has been through the questions, tell us what you were asked. It will help the next founder.
If you would like more information, sign up for our newsletter. If you have questions, reach out to me directly. We will be pleased to hear from you.
We are also building a shortlist of startups to launch a tokenisation pilot with: a small first group of founders taking their company through the tokenisation process, so there are real case studies for others to learn from. If your company is set up, your admin is in place and you have a clear proposition, tell us where you are. This is not for pre MVP concepts yet, and shortlisting is not a guarantee of a place.
This is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
Key takeaways
A poll of 18 UK founders and investors in April found 94 per cent exploring, watching or unsure where to start, and the market has moved from pilots to plumbing since.
Technology is no longer the constraint: the work has shifted to vendor selection, valuation and liquidity, and there is still a shortage of case studies.
Companies that want to raise this way need their company set up, admin in place and a clear proposition, and it is probably not yet for pre MVP concepts.
Crowdcube reports a £543 million PISCES pipeline, FCA cryptoasset applications are open, and a tokenisation pilot shortlist of startups is being built.
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