Examining DTCC’s Upcoming Commercial Launch of Tokenisation Services

October 2026

Fintech & Payments

Jawad Jahan

Senior Research Analyst

In October 2026, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is expected to launch the ‘DTCC Tokenization Service’; allowing participants that hold securities at the Depository Trust Company (DTC) to readily convert their securities into tokens. But, before this article delves into the specifics, and what this means for market participants, we must first understand what the DTCC is. 

The DTCC and its Subsidiaries

The DTCC is the backbone of US capital markets. It is a holding company owned by the financial institutions that use its services, and operates through three registered clearing agencies: 

• The DTC: the central securities depository, which means it acts as the central vault and bookkeeper for US securities
• The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC): the central counterparty for broker-to-broker trades in US equities, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds
• The Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC): clears and settles US Treasury and agency mortgage-backed securities; trades through its Government Securities and Mortgage-Backed Securities Divisions

When an investor buys shares of a company through their broker, neither the investor nor the broker receives the share certificate. This is because almost all US stocks and bonds are held at the DTC, which maintains a ledger of which broker or bank owns how much. In turn, the broker or bank keeps its own ledger of which customers own what. Figure 1 illustrates DTCC and the role of its subsidiaries in settlements.

 Figure 1: DTCC Settlement

Source: Juniper Research

DTCC commands enormous scale: in 2025, its subsidiaries (DTC, NSCC, FICC) processed transactions valued at $4.7 quadrillion, whilst DTC held $114 trillion of securities in custody, issued across more than 150 countries and territories.

The Anticipated Commercial Launch

Now, DTC wants to tokenise the assets it holds. In December 2025, the regulatory groundwork was laid down when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Division of Trading and Markets issued DTC a no-action letter permitting it to run a three-year pilot to tokenise DTC-custodied assets on supported blockchains. Furthermore, the relief extends to the participants of DTC; allowing them to tokenise securities on distributed ledgers, rather than only on DTC’s centralised ledger. The process is as follows:

1. Participants opt in and register wallets on approved blockchains
2. When prompted, DTC moves the security into a Digital Omnibus Account and mints tokens through its ComposerX Factory software
3. DTC then delivers the tokens to the participant’s wallet
4. From there, tokens can move directly between registered wallets without DTC instructing each transfer. Tokens can also be converted back to book-entry form at any time.

Since the no-action letter from the SEC in late 2025, DTCC has been moving forward with its pilot programme. Figure 2 shows the timeline of events that have occurred since the letter:

Figure 2: DTCC’s Tokenisation Timeline

Source: Juniper Research

The expected October 2026 launch should cover three core asset groups: constituents of the Russell 1000 Index, exchange-traded funds’ tracking major indices such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, and US Treasuries bills, notes and bonds. The selection covers some of the most liquid instruments DTC holds, reducing the risk of illiquid or fragmented token markets at launch.

Initially, tokens will be issued on two networks: LFDT Besu and Canton. Besu is an open-sourced Ethereum client maintained by the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust (LFDT), which DTCC runs as a private, permissioned network. Canton is a public network built by Digital Asset for regulated finance, with privacy configured at the protocol level. Running both networks gives DTCC a controlled and shared environment from day one.

What it Means for Markets

Tokenised stocks are not new – but they lack functionality. Most of today’s offerings are issued by a third party, typically a special-purpose vehicle or regulated issuer, which buys the underlying shares, holds them 1:1 with a custodian, and issues tokens against them. Other implementations are structured simply as derivatives that track the share price. In both cases, the holder does not receive the full rights of share ownership, such as voting rights and shareholder protections. Similarly, the distribution of dividends passed through the underlying shares depends on the issuer’s solvency and custody arrangements.

DTC’s model changes this. The underlying shares never leave DTC, and remain registered in the name of its nominee. So, tokens would carry the same entitlements, investor protections, and ownership rights as traditional book-entry holders. Furthermore, token transfers between registered wallets can settle near-instantly, potentially improving capital efficiency in back-office functions.

The core benefit of keeping tokenisation with the DTC is that it enables growth without fragmenting the market. DTC remains the source of truth; ensuring the same security cannot circulate in traditional and digital markets at the same time, ie double spending. Similarly, it allows the DTC to enforce rules and control risks around tokenised stocks existing on digital markets, such as screening wallets against sanctions requirements from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the ability to reverse erroneous or fraudulent transfers.

Once DTC-backed tokenised shares start trading and exchanging hands on approved blockchain, the tokens can be used within permissioned, approved applications that offer capabilities such as lending, borrowing, and liquidity provisioning for market making. The production trades conducted in July 2026 illustrated this range of use cases. For instance, in collateral and margin workflows, tokenised Treasuries or equities can be pledged to a counterparty and moved in minutes, including outside of market hours, as opposed to waiting on batch settlement cycles. This allows firms to meet intraday margin calls with assets they already hold, reducing the cash buffers they would otherwise need to keep on hand.

Looking Ahead

The DTCC is expected to commercially launch its tokenisation services in October 2026 – giving DTC participants the ability to tokenise securities held at the depository. The main aspect to watch will be the details accompanying the launch: DTC, subject to SEC’s no-action letter, must publish a list of its approved blockchains, tokenisation protocols, and any fees surrounding the service. This will indicate how open the service will be to existing networks and participants beyond the initial two chains.

Following this, the test will be in adoption. Measures such as volumes, the value of securities tokenised through DTC, number of registered wallets, and daily transfer activity etc will show whether market participants are moving assets on-chain, or not.

The no-action relief from the SEC lasts three years from launch, and the SEC staff can modify or revoke it at any time. This makes 2027 a decisive year, especially since it will be the first full year of production data, which will shape whether the service expands beyond its preliminary scope – assuming the DTCC goes ahead with the October 2026 launch. If adoption materialises, tokenisation within existing market infrastructure, such as DTC’s service, is likely to become the default route for institutional on-chain securities, leaving issuer-backed tokens to serve the markets DTC does not reach, such as non-US retail investors and crypto-native platforms.