The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the central securities depository that custodies more than $100 trillion in assets and processes virtually every U.S. equity and fixed-income trade, is building a tokenization service that will place blockchain-native representations of Russell ...
"Tokenizing the U.S. securities market has the potential to yield transformational benefits such as collateral mobility, new trading modalities, 24/7 access and programmable assets, but this will only be achievable if market infrastructure provides a robust foundation to usher in this new digital era." — Frank La Salla, President and CEO, DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the central securities depository that custodies more than $100 trillion in assets and processes virtually every U.S. equity and fixed-income trade, is building a tokenization service that will place blockchain-native representations of Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries onto public and permissioned blockchain networks. Initial limited-production trades are targeted for July 2026, with a full service launch in October 2026.
The effort is backed by an industry working group of more than 50 firms — including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citadel Securities, Robinhood, Circle, and Ondo Finance — and operates under a three-year SEC no-action letter granted in December 2025. In late May 2026, DTCC named Stellar as the first public blockchain to receive a direct connection to DTC-custodied tokenized assets, with availability targeted for H1 2027. A separate Collateral AppChain built on Chainlink infrastructure is slated for Q4 2026.
This is the single largest commitment of traditional financial infrastructure to public blockchain rails in the industry's history. The scope — measured by the dollar value of assets eligible for tokenization — dwarfs all prior RWA tokenization efforts combined.
On December 11, 2025, the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets issued a no-action letter to the Depository Trust Company (DTC), DTCC's central securities depository subsidiary. The letter permits DTC to offer a "Preliminary Base Version" of its securities tokenization program for a three-year period.
Under the letter, DTC participants may elect to have their security entitlements recorded using distributed ledger technology rather than exclusively through DTC's centralized ledger. The tokenized entitlements function as a mirrored record: DTC retains the authoritative legal ownership record, while the blockchain hosts a synchronized on-chain representation of the same asset.
Key constraints imposed by the SEC:
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce issued a concurrent statement endorsing the initiative, framing it as a necessary step toward modernizing market infrastructure.
DTCC's tokenization service operates as a layer atop DTC's existing custody infrastructure. Assets are not "moved" to blockchain — rather, blockchain-native representations (tokenized entitlements) are created alongside DTC's existing book-entry records.
Timeline:
| Milestone | Date | |-----------|------| | SEC no-action letter issued | December 11, 2025 | | Industry Working Group convened (50+ firms) | May 4, 2026 | | Stellar named as first public chain connection | May 27, 2026 | | Initial limited production trades | July 2026 (target) | | Full service launch | October 2026 (target) | | DTC-custodied assets available on Stellar | H1 2027 (target) | | Collateral AppChain (Chainlink) launch | Q4 2026 (target) |
Eligible asset universe:
DTC held $100.3 trillion in assets under custody as of mid-2025. Of this, equities totaled $74.1 trillion (up from $49.6 trillion in 2020), ETFs reached $11 trillion (doubled from $5.5 trillion in 2020), and money market instruments stood at $4.1 trillion. While the tokenization service initially covers Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and Treasuries, the theoretical eligible pool represents a substantial share of total DTC custody.
The service supports issuance, settlement, and lifecycle management of tokenized securities. Participants with registered wallets can transfer tokenized entitlements directly to other registered participants, enabling peer-to-peer settlement without routing through traditional clearing intermediaries for certain post-trade functions.
DTCC convened more than 50 firms into an Industry Working Group on May 4, 2026. The composition spans the full institutional value chain:
Major Banks & Asset Managers: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, State Street, Wells Fargo, UBS, BNP Paribas, Citi, Charles Schwab
Market Infrastructure & Exchanges: NYSE Group, Nasdaq, Broadridge
Brokerages & Trading: Robinhood, Citadel Securities
Digital Asset Natives: Circle, Ondo Finance, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, Payward (Kraken parent), Ripple Prime
The breadth of this coalition is significant. It includes the largest asset manager in the world (BlackRock, $11.6 trillion AUM), the largest custodian bank (State Street), the two major U.S. stock exchanges, and both traditional and crypto-native brokerages. The inclusion of Ondo Finance and Circle — two firms with established tokenized Treasury and stablecoin products — suggests DTCC is building interoperability bridges between its institutional platform and existing on-chain treasury markets.
Nadine Chakar, DTCC's Global Head of Digital Assets, stated the firm plans to connect to "multiple layer-1 and layer-2 networks," confirming a multi-chain strategy rather than a single-chain commitment.
On May 27, 2026, DTCC named Stellar as the first public blockchain to receive a direct connection to DTC's tokenization service. DTC-custodied assets are expected to become available on Stellar in H1 2027.
Technical rationale:
Stellar's protocol includes built-in compliance features that the SEC's no-action letter effectively requires:
These features are native to Stellar's protocol layer, not bolted on via smart contracts. For a systemically important clearinghouse operating under an SEC no-action letter, protocol-level enforcement reduces risk compared to contract-level enforcement.
Institutional track record:
Stellar already hosts Franklin Templeton's on-chain money market fund (FOBXX), one of the earliest SEC-registered funds to record share ownership on a public blockchain. This gave Stellar a demonstrated track record with a regulated asset manager.
Stellar CEO Denelle Dixon stated: "DTCC is the backbone of global capital markets, and integrating their tokenization service with Stellar connects public blockchain networks to regulated market infrastructure." She added: "Blockchain is excellent at books and records. Tokenization is the product outcome, but it's all these underlying components that are really important."
Dixon also noted that tokenization adoption will likely continue regardless of whether the CLARITY Act passes, citing Franklin Templeton's existing products as evidence that regulatory action is not a prerequisite.
Market impact:
XLM (Stellar's native token) surged approximately 80% in the week following the announcement, according to CCN. The token had previously ranked fourth globally in RWA tokenization with 41 tokenized assets valued at $1.8 billion and a 5.39% market share.
Separately from the Stellar integration, DTCC announced on May 12, 2026 that it will use Chainlink's infrastructure to build a Collateral AppChain, targeting a Q4 2026 launch.
The platform will integrate:
The Collateral AppChain is designed to enable 24/7 automated collateral management — functions including margining, collateral optimization, and real-time settlement of tokenized assets. Traditional collateral management processes operate during market hours and involve significant manual reconciliation. Automating these on blockchain rails could reduce settlement times and enable collateral to move across counterparties in near real-time.
According to Nasdaq research cited by DTCC, 52% of financial institutions expect to manage live tokenized collateral by the end of 2026. DTCC handles approximately $114 trillion in liquid assets, giving the Collateral AppChain a substantial addressable market if adoption materializes.
DTCC's entry into tokenization occurs against an existing — but comparatively small — RWA tokenization market. Current market share by chain (as of mid-2026):
| Blockchain | Tokenized Assets | Value | Market Share | |-----------|-----------------|-------|-------------| | Ethereum | 704 | $18.7B | 55.0% | | BNB Chain | 478 | $3.7B | 10.9% | | Solana | 418 | $2.6B | 7.6% | | Stellar | 41 | $1.8B | 5.4% | | Liquid Network | — | $1.5B | 4.4% | | Avalanche | — | $1.2B | 3.5% | | ZKSync Era | — | $976.5M | 2.9% | | Arbitrum | — | $853.5M | 2.5% |
Total RWA tokenization across all chains stands at approximately $34 billion. DTC's eligible custody pool — even limited to Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and Treasuries — exceeds this figure by orders of magnitude. If even a small fraction of DTC-custodied assets are tokenized, the existing RWA market would be dwarfed.
DTCC is not competing with these chains directly. Its multi-chain strategy positions it as a distribution layer: the same DTC-custodied asset could, in theory, have tokenized representations on Stellar, Ethereum, Avalanche, or other connected networks simultaneously. DTCC has also partnered with Digital Asset on the Canton Network for Treasury tokenization, confirming that Stellar is the first — but not the only — chain in the pipeline.
Other institutional competitors include:
DTCC's advantage is jurisdictional: it is the sole central securities depository for U.S. equities and fixed income. No competitor has equivalent access to the underlying custody layer.
Regulatory risk: The SEC no-action letter is not permanent rulemaking. It expires three years after launch and can be revoked at any time. A change in SEC leadership or policy direction could constrain the program.
Adoption uncertainty: Having 50+ firms in a working group does not guarantee active trading. Early-stage tokenization platforms have historically suffered from liquidity fragmentation. The July 2026 pilot will be "limited production trades" — actual volume is unknown.
Multi-chain complexity: Operating tokenized entitlements across multiple blockchains introduces interoperability, reconciliation, and governance challenges. Ensuring that DTC's book remains the authoritative record while tokens exist on multiple chains requires robust synchronization infrastructure.
Market structure questions: It remains unclear how tokenized entitlements will interact with existing market structure — central limit order books, market makers, dark pools, and payment-for-order-flow arrangements. These questions are not addressed in the SEC no-action letter.
Smart contract and protocol risk: Any chain connected to DTC-custodied assets becomes a potential attack surface. While Stellar's protocol-level controls mitigate some risk, no blockchain is immune to vulnerabilities.
DTCC's tokenization service represents the first time the U.S. securities market's central custody infrastructure has been connected to public blockchain networks. The scale — $100+ trillion in custody, 50+ institutional participants, Russell 1000 and Treasuries as the initial asset set — is without precedent in the tokenization space.
The initiative does not displace existing market structure. DTC retains the legal record; blockchain provides a supplementary ledger. But the downstream implications are material: programmable settlement, 24/7 collateral management, and cross-chain asset mobility become technically feasible once assets exist in tokenized form on public rails.
Whether this remains a narrow pilot or expands into standard market infrastructure will depend on three factors: actual trading volume after the October 2026 launch, the SEC's willingness to extend or formalize the no-action letter into permanent rulemaking, and whether multi-chain interoperability can be achieved without fragmenting liquidity.
The July 2026 pilot will provide the first real data points. Until then, DTCC's commitment — and the roster of firms backing it — represents the most significant structural test of whether tokenization can move from a $34 billion niche to the core plumbing of the world's largest capital market.