The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to introduce tokenized securities trading in July, beginning with limited production trades and advancing to a full service launch by October. This initiative aims to integrate blockchain technology across its $114 trillion of custodied assets.
The new service will initially target highly liquid assets such as Russell 1000 constituents, exchange-traded funds that mirror major indexes, and U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes. Its development was supported by an industry working group consisting of over 50 financial firms from both traditional finance and decentralized finance sectors.
Key Wall Street participants include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citadel Securities, as reported in a press release. The collaboration also features crypto-native platforms like USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, alongside crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, reflecting widespread support across both conventional and digital asset realms.
Frank La Salla, DTCC President and CEO, emphasized the organization’s leadership role: “As a global leader in financial services, DTCC continues to galvanize a broad cross-section of industry leaders to facilitate ongoing, robust dialogue that drives widespread digital assets adoption and advances innovation.” He added, “Our vision is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization service and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi. We believe tokenization will significantly change how markets work and operate, bringing new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to investors.”
DTCC’s Depository Trust Company, the core of U.S. securities settlement infrastructure, processes a majority of equity and fixed-income trades within American markets. This positions DTCC’s tokenization service as potentially the largest link between traditional finance and blockchain-based securities trading.
The initiative builds on regulatory approval received earlier this year when the SEC sanctioned DTCC’s pilot program to record U.S. securities on select blockchains using registered wallets. This follows broader Wall Street adoption of tokenization, with NYSE partnering with Securitize for tokenized securities and Computershare collaborating with the same firm to tokenize thousands of company stocks.
Nadine Chakar, DTCC’s managing director and global head of digital assets, stated, “Tokenization is an important and critical step toward building tomorrow’s digital infrastructure.” She continued, “DTCC is committed to remaining at the forefront of innovation and championing a scalable, interoperable, and risk-managed Web3 ecosystem that harnesses the power of digital ledger technology and delivers real value to the industry.”