DTCC launches tokenization service for 34 securities with market value of nearly $30 trillion
Key Facts
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced on October 28 the launch of a service to tokenize securities held at its subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company (DTC). The service enables digital representations of assets to be created, converted between traditional and tokenized forms, and delivered to digital wallets selected by eligible users. The launch list includes 34 securities with a market value of nearly $30 trillion, according to the product website and a DTCC spokesperson cited by CoinDesk. DTCC says tokenized securities retain the ownership rights, investor protections and economic entitlements associated with their traditional counterparts. DTCC Chief Executive Frank La Salla said the launch “marks the culmination of years of work to bring tokenized securities into a regulated framework supported by trusted market infrastructure.”
Eligible categories include selected stocks among the Russell 1000 constituents, exchange-traded funds tracking major indexes, and U.S. Treasury securities. The Russell 1000 comprises 1,000 companies, according to a definition in DTCC’s FAQ. At launch, the service operates on the Canton network and the institution’s private Besu network, with other blockchain networks to be added during 2027. DTCC said 20 DTC participants had signed agreements to access the service by the time of the announcement. The names cited by the institution include Alpaca, Barclays, Bank of America, Citi, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, State Street and UBS, among a broader list.
One feature of the arrangement is the separation between token movement and the official ownership record: DTC retains the authoritative records while tokens move between registered wallets. A no-action letter published by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce said DTC’s system tracks transfers to record tokenization entitlements in its official books and records. According to CoinDesk, eligible firms can convert securities into tokens during business hours, while DTCC is targeting processing within 15 minutes or less. Once the conversion is complete, assets can be transferred between registered wallets around the clock, subject to compliance restrictions. This timeframe is a stated processing target, while ownership rights and economic entitlements, according to DTCC, remain tied to the corresponding traditional securities.
The program’s regulatory framework dates to December 11, 2025, when staff in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets announced a no-action letter in support of DTC’s development of an initial voluntary tokenization program. Peirce described the program as experimental and subject to multiple operational restrictions, and said the letter concerned a program on supported networks that meet DTC’s standards. The statement does not constitute broad SEC approval of all forms of securities tokenization. In January 2026, the SEC explained that tokenization models differ in their structure and the rights they grant holders, including differences in the role of the security’s issuer versus other parties. This places the new service within a model that links assets registered with an existing depository to specific digital networks and wallets.
The launch was preceded by live trading trials announced by DTCC in July 2026, about seven months after the no-action letter. The institution said more than 30 firms took part in completing initial limited-production trades and multi-chain transactions ahead of the service launch. On July 15, DTCC reported that assets held at DTC had been converted into tokens and used in actual production transactions, with participation from traditional financial institutions and digital-market participants. The trials included collateral pledging, securities lending and Treasury and equity delivery-versus-payment transactions, as well as equity token transfers and central clearing margin workflows. DTCC also said the service’s development benefited from input from more than 150 firms through DTC’s Digital Assets Solutions Group, a figure that refers to the working group and does not represent the number of signatories to access agreements.
The service is being introduced within infrastructure that handles large volumes of securities-market transactions: DTCC subsidiaries processed transactions worth $4.7 quadrillion during 2025. In the same year, the depository provided custody and asset services for securities issued in more than 150 countries and territories, valued at $114 trillion. These figures describe the scope of the group’s existing operations, while the $30 trillion figure refers to securities eligible for tokenization at launch. In the broader market context, the International Monetary Fund said in October that repurchase agreements account for most tokenized-asset activity, averaging about $300 billion to $350 billion in daily transactions, while trading in other tokenized assets adds $65 billion a day. The fund estimated the U.S. repo market at about $13 trillion a day and global capital-market assets at about $300 trillion.
The IMF analysis found that more than half of trading in tokenized markets takes place outside traditional market hours, and that about 80% of the tokenized stock trades covered by the analysis were for less than one share. But it said these markets remain less liquid and more volatile than their traditional counterparts, and that fragmented trading across networks and platforms weakens liquidity and price discovery. The fund identified legal certainty, regulatory clarity, interoperability and the availability of safe settlement assets as key constraints on tokenization’s growth. For DTCC’s service, the next announced step is to add blockchain networks during 2027, while initial use covers eligible securities and transfers between registered wallets. Access to the service is intended for eligible users, under DTCC’s stated terms.