On July 15, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that it processed real production trades using tokenized assets held at The Depository Trust Company (DTC).
DTCC Processes Live Trades with Tokenized DTC Assets
In its official press release, the company called this development a major achievement as it brings tokenization into reality. The company confirmed that its upcoming Tokenization Service can connect traditional and digital worlds by converting DTC-held securities into tokens for multiple on-chain trades. This makes it the biggest tokenization production initiative to date in terms of use cases, asset classes, and others.
Frank La Salla, President and CEO of DTCC, said, “DTCC demonstrated that we can apply the same institutional rigor to tokenization as we do for traditional assets while continuing to safeguard the integrity and resiliency of the global financial markets. The DTCC Tokenization Service will institutionalize tokenized markets on day one and will be a critical enabler of the digital ecosystem of the future, while reinforcing trust, safety and scale in a digital world.”
On July 15, the tokenized trades took place in the live environment. These tokenized trades will open the door for the full launch of DTCC Tokenization Service, which is expected to roll out in October 2026.
There are more than 30 firms from traditional finance and digital market participants raised support for the project, which includes the list of BlackRock, Chainlink, Circle, Citadel Securities, CME Group, Digital Asset Holdings (creators of Canton Network), DriveWealth, DRW, Fireblocks, Flow Traders, FTSE Russell, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust (LF Decentralized Trust), and others.
According to the official announcement, the firm executed the digital conversions on two networks as part of its multi-chain strategy, including Hyperledger Besu and Canton Network. Hyperledger Besu is its private network. This integration is expected to provide resilience and flexibility.
The DTCC Tokenization Service will allow DTC to create tokenized “digital twins” of real-world assets. These can be delivered to users’ chosen wallets. Users will be able to switch tokenized securities held at DTC between traditional and tokenized forms. This gives participants access to new liquidity pools and more flexible digital asset strategies while preserving full investor protections, entitlements, and ownership rights.
Brian Steele, President of Clearing & Securities Services at DTCC, stated in a press release, “DTCC successfully showcased how tokenization can enable real-time collateral mobility, enhance liquidity and capital efficiency, reduce counterparty risk and support interoperability between traditional and digital ecosystems. Market participants will soon have the best of both worlds because DTC-tokenized assets maintain the same investor protections, entitlements and ownership rights as traditional securities, all while enabling greater efficiency, programmability and security.”
Nadine Chakar, Managing Director, Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets, said, “Innovation requires collaboration. Because of DTCC’s role in global financial markets, we convened key industry participants to help us design the DTCC Tokenization Service. DTCC demonstrated that the safest, most direct path to decentralization runs through trusted financial market infrastructures and that legacy and Web3 ecosystems can coexist without disruption.”
SEC No-Action Letter Enables DTCC Tokenization Pilot
The live event included various real-world transactions across different asset classes in a DTC production setting. Examples include collateral pledges, securities lending, U.S. Treasury and repo delivery-versus-payment (DVP) trades, equity delivery-versus-delivery (DVD) trades, equity token transfers, and central counterparty (CCP) margin workflows.
These took place over several hours and tested the service’s ability to match traditional infrastructure in terms of resiliency, integrity, protections, and operational standards.
In December 2025, DTC secured a No-Action Letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The letter granted DTC permission to operate a tokenization service for assets it custodians, initially as a three-year pilot with strict guidelines. The service was developed with input from the DTCC Industry Working Group, which now includes more than 100 members and partners.
