The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has said tokenisation and digital‑asset infrastructure are now central to the next phase of capital‑market evolution, marking a shift from long‑term trend to active implementation across global fixed income markets.
In its Q3 2026 Quarterly Report, the association frames tokenisation as one of the defining forces reshaping market structure, alongside accelerated settlement cycles, changing liquidity dynamics and the growing demands on collateral markets.
In the foreword, ICMA Chief Executive Bryan Pascoe notes that technology’s impact on market functioning has moved decisively into the operational mainstream.
“The impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is impossible to ignore,” he said, adding that “opportunities presented by tokenisation, digital assets and new forms of market infrastructure are constant themes” as innovation accelerates.
The shift, he says, requires practical governance, organisational change and a focus on interoperability to ensure digitalisation strengthens market integrity rather than fragments it.
ICMA positions tokenisation within a broader agenda of market resilience. The report highlights the need for robust infrastructure as participants prepare for shorter settlement cycles, more complex liquidity conditions and heightened collateral pressures. Against that backdrop, digital‑asset rails are presented not as a standalone innovation but as part of a wider structural modernisation of fixed income markets.
Pascoe argued that the industry is moving beyond conceptual pilots: “What was only recently a future trend to monitor is now instrumental in market structure change in capital markets.”
A key component of ICMA’s digital‑market strategy is the development and adoption of common standards. The report points to the growing use of the ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy (BDT), which Pascoe describes as “a critical element of facilitating the effective take up of industry digitalisation going forward.”
Standardisation, ICMA suggests, will be essential to ensuring tokenised and traditional issuance can operate across interoperable rails without introducing new operational or legal fragmentation.
While the report does not announce new tokenisation initiatives, it reinforces ICMA’s role in shaping digital‑market practice through its FinTech Advisory Committee, DLT Bonds Working Group and ongoing work on digital‑asset standards.
