DTCC Tokenization Starts Without Crypto’s Freedom

• DTCC has launched its securities tokenization service commercially.
• Tokens move on Canton Network and on a private Hyperledger Besu chain.
• Major banks such as JPMorgan and Citigroup have signed access agreements.
• The actual value of tokenized assets has not been disclosed yet.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the company that clears and settles nearly all of the U.S. securities market, launched the DTCC Tokenization Service commercially on October 28. The first wave covers 34 instruments (Russell 1000 stocks, exchange-traded funds and U.S. Treasury securities) with a combined market value of roughly $30 trillion, according to DTCC. Twenty financial institutions, including JPMorgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, have signed access agreements, and the tokens move across two networks: Canton Network and a private blockchain built with Hyperledger Besu. DTCC President and CEO Frank La Salla called the launch the culmination of years of work to bring tokenized securities into a regulated framework.

What the $30 Trillion Figure Really Covers

The $30 trillion describes the market capitalization of the eligible instruments, while the amount institutions have actually converted into tokens so far is something DTCC has not reported. That missing number is the one that will show whether demand extends beyond the pilot trades.

The size of the system the service plugs into explains why banks are paying attention. DTCC’s depository, the Depository Trust Company (DTC), holds more than $114 trillion in securities, and in 2025 DTCC’s subsidiaries processed transactions worth $4.7 quadrillion. Tokenization here runs directly on top of that existing liquidity, which sets it apart from crypto platforms offering synthetic stocks with no link to the official depository.

Source: DTCC

How a Stock Becomes a Token Without Leaving DTC

The process starts during business hours, when a DTC participant, usually a bank or broker, submits a request to convert part of its position into tokens, with DTCC targeting processing times of 15 minutes or less. Each token corresponds one-to-one with securities that stay in the depository’s custody and carries the same CUSIP, the nine-character code used to identify the security in traditional systems.

The registered owner of the underlying assets remains Cede & Co., DTC’s nominee. The official ownership record sits in DTCC’s internal LedgerScan system, while the blockchain tracks movements between registered wallets.

Once created, tokens can change hands around the clock, seven days a week, although only within the same chain, so a token minted on Canton cannot move directly to Besu. That applies to wallet-to-wallet transfers, whereas full digital settlement, where payment and delivery of the securities happen simultaneously, is still being developed.

The smart contracts behind the service allow tokens to be minted and burned, temporarily paused and forcibly clawed back when rules are breached. Those controls make the model acceptable to regulators, yet they also separate it clearly from public cryptocurrencies, where no central party can freeze or reverse a transaction.

The Three-Year Pilot Agreed With the SEC

The legal basis is a no-action letter from the SEC, issued by its Division of Trading and Markets on December 11, 2025. In it, agency staff said they would not recommend enforcement if DTC ran a limited version of the service for three years. Some existing rules, such as Regulation SCI on the resilience of market infrastructure, were written for centralized systems, so DTC proposed its own safeguards, including a condition that tokenized entitlements receive no collateral value in the depository’s own risk management.

The banks’ motive is purely financial, because when a broker has to meet a margin call (extra collateral a counterparty demands after a sharp price move) on a Friday evening, that collateral is stuck until the next business day under today’s setup. A token that changes owners in minutes frees up capital that would otherwise sit idle while the transfer is pending.

DTCC tested this in practice on July 15, when more than 30 firms completed live production trades on Canton and Besu, covering securities lending, collateral pledges and repo transactions (short-term loans backed by bonds) using U.S. Treasuries. Brian Steele, president of Clearing & Securities Services at DTCC, described the result as proof that tokenization can move collateral in real time and reduce counterparty risk.

Twenty Contracts, 150 Firms Behind the Scenes

Institutions with signed access include JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays, Fidelity Investments, Citadel Securities, State Street and UBS, and DTCC’s official announcement adds Apex Clearing, BNP Paribas, Brown Brothers Harriman, Edward Jones, Clear Street and Marex to the list. BitGo, Blockdaemon, Fireblocks and HashKey are among nine wallet and application providers at launch, alongside Kaleido, Prometheum, Talos, Temple and Tradeweb.

The working group that designed the service grew from more than 50 firms when DTCC announced its timeline in May to over 150 by launch, with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, NYSE, Robinhood and Circle among its members. Helping build the service, however, does not make these companies day-one customers.

Stellar and Arc Wait Their Turn in 2027

DTCC plans to add Stellar in the first half of 2027 and Arc, the blockchain developed by USDC issuer Circle, in the second half. Arc is the more consequential of the two, since it was built for digital cash payments, and the absence of a digital cash leg is exactly what currently prevents simultaneous exchange of securities for money. Until that integration works, tokenized stocks move quickly while the cash paying for them still travels through traditional rails.

For crypto holders, Canton and Stellar’s role in the project does not automatically translate into proportional demand for their native tokens, because the outcome depends on fee arrangements and on whether activity runs through the public or private side of each network.

The first hard adoption data will come from regulatory filings. The SEC letter requires DTC to hand agency staff a quarterly package listing pilot participants, the number and value of tokenized securities and average daily transfer volumes, while the list of approved blockchains and the service’s fees must be made public. The first of those reports will cover only the final nine weeks of 2026, and the relief itself expires three years after launch, giving DTCC a limited window to prove the model before the SEC decides whether to expand it.