DTCC and Stellar to Tokenize DTC Assets by Mid-2027

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the Stellar Development Foundation intend to enable tokenization of securities held at the Depository Trust Company (DTC) on the public Stellar blockchain in the first half of 2027. The plan follows a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission No‑Action Letter issued in December 2025 that authorized DTC to offer a custodial tokenization service.

Under the agreement, securities custodied at DTC would be converted into tokenized representations on Stellar. The partners said the service will support the full asset lifecycle, including corporate actions, entitlements and regulatory reporting, and will link DTCC’s custodial systems with Stellar’s ledger through technical and operational integrations.

DTCC framed the effort as part of a multi-chain strategy to bring regulated market assets onto digital rails while preserving existing investor protections and entitlements tied to held securities. The organizations said tokenized DTC assets on Stellar could enable faster settlement, greater mobility of holdings, extended trading windows and lower operational risk for market participants.

DTCC identified potential early candidates for tokenization as highly liquid equities such as Russell 1000 constituents, exchange-traded funds that track major indexes, and U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds. The firm plans to apply more than five decades of clearing and settlement experience to scale the service and will study eligible use cases and asset classes before launch.

Frank La Salla, DTCC’s president and CEO, described the partnership as an effort to “build an open, interoperable digital infrastructure that bridges traditional and digital markets,” saying tokenization could improve transaction and capital efficiency and support collateral mobility. Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, highlighted Stellar’s compliance-minded architecture and risk management features and said the collaboration connects public blockchain networks with regulated market infrastructure. Brian Steele, DTCC managing director and president of clearing and securities services, said the firm aims to introduce tokenization “to markets safely and at scale.”

The SEC’s December 2025 No‑Action Letter set parameters for how tokenized custodial assets would be managed under existing regulatory expectations, according to DTCC. The authorization addressed implementation and operation of a custodial tokenization service and included reporting and corporate action processes.

Market participants have conducted multiple tokenization pilots in recent years. DTCC and Stellar said the planned integration is intended to move tokenization from experimental proofs of concept toward infrastructure that could operate alongside conventional securities settlement systems. Availability on Stellar is subject to further development, testing and ongoing regulatory compliance.