Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a major Wall Street operator, has announced plans to initiate limited production trades of tokenized securities in July, with a full-scale launch of its platform scheduled for October. The new service, developed within DTCC's Depository Trust Company, enables firms to create digital versions of assets currently held in custody while maintaining the same ownership rights and protections. This initiative is the result of collaboration with over 50 firms, including prominent financial institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, as well as crypto-native companies like Anchorage and Circle. The effort represents one of the most concrete timelines set by a core market infrastructure component transitioning to blockchain-based settlement.
As a central figure in U.S. markets, DTCC processes trillions of trades daily and serves as the custodian of more than $114 trillion in securities.
The process of tokenization, which involves representing assets like stocks or bonds on a blockchain, has garnered increasing interest from traditional financial institutions due to its potential to reduce settlement times, lower costs, and expand market access to new participants. According to Frank La Salla, DTCC President and CEO, 'We believe tokenization will significantly alter the functioning of markets, introducing new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to investors.' This move is part of a broader push by Wall Street towards tokenization, with other major operators like Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, also exploring the potential of blockchain-based shares and tokenized stocks. These efforts reflect a larger race to establish 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 participated in projects like the Canton Network. In December, the firm received a no-action letter from the SEC, permitting it to offer tokenization services for a specific set of assets, including Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs, and U.S.
Treasuries.