Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a major Wall Street operator, announced on Monday that it will commence limited production trades of tokenized securities in July, with a broader launch of its platform scheduled for October. The new service, developed within DTCC's Depository Trust Company, will enable firms to create digital versions of assets already held in custody, while maintaining the same ownership rights and protections. This system has been designed with input from over 50 firms, including prominent institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, as well as crypto-native companies like Anchorage and Circle.
As a core piece of market infrastructure, DTCC's move into blockchain-based settlement marks one of the most concrete timelines yet. With its central role in U.S. markets, processing trillions of trades daily and serving as custodian of more than $114 trillion in securities, DTCC's effort is significant.
Tokenization, the process of representing assets like stocks or bonds on a blockchain, has garnered increasing interest among traditional financial institutions, which believe it can reduce settlement times, cut costs, and open markets to new participants. According to Frank La Salla, DTCC President and CEO, "tokenization will significantly change how markets work and operate, bringing new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to investors." This development is part of a broader push towards tokenization on Wall Street, with other major operators like Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange also exploring blockchain-based shares and tokenized stocks. These efforts reflect a wider race to build a shared infrastructure for trading stocks, bonds, and digital assets.
DTCC has been gradually building towards this moment, having tested distributed ledger systems for years and joined projects like the Canton Network. In December, it received a no-action letter from the SEC, allowing it to offer tokenization services for a defined set of assets.