A new note from Lloyds Bank signals that blockchain, crypto, and digital assets are becoming institutionalised in the c-suite.
Peter Left, Lloyds’ Head of Digital & Markets Innovation, writes "Embracing blockchain: How tokenisation changes the game for digitised finance" and makes the case that blockchain is no longer just a niche experiment.
In a new thoughtleader piece to the bank's corporate clients, Left says a combination of regulation catching up, technical improvements around privacy, and clearer commercial opportunities are laying the groundwork for broader adoption
"As we stride towards a fully digitised financial system, the value of digital assets and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is becoming increasingly clear," says Left.
He adds: "CFOs and treasurers will have the opportunity to tokenise every item on their balance sheet – from deposits through to loans, invoices, warehouse inventory or even assets such as machinery."
When a bank of this size and reputation starts talking openly about tokenisation and distributed ledgers on a c-suite level, it tells me the conversation has shifted.
What stands out to me is how Left frames digital assets:
They are not treated as something speculative or outside the financial system, but as digital representations of money, contracts, and financial instruments that can be broken into tokens and moved around more efficiently.
That’s a far cry from the early “crypto-anarchy” narrative and much closer to the way mainstream finance operates.
To me, this is the institutionalisation process in action. Banks are not trying to fight the technology anymore, they are figuring out how to integrate it into regulated environments. Once that foundation is in place, the step from traditional assets to natively digital ones like stablecoins or programmable securities starts to look natural.
It feels like we are moving from theory to practice. And when a player like Lloyds signals that blockchain and tokenisation will play a role in the future of digitised finance, it reinforces my view that this space is no longer on the fringes.
Not only is it becoming part of the financial mainstream, it's becoming a part of the C-suite too.