DTCC to begin tokenized securities trading in July

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation will run limited production trades of tokenized securities in July and plans a full commercial launch in October 2026. The program will introduce blockchain-based trading for a subset of securities held by its DTC unit, which custodies more than $114 trillion in assets.

Initially the service will cover highly liquid U.S. instruments: constituents of the Russell 1000, exchange-traded funds that track major indexes, and U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds. July activity will consist of controlled trades to test operational processes, connectivity and participant interactions ahead of the broader October roll-out.

Regulators approved a DTCC pilot in December that allows the firm to record U.S. securities on selected blockchains and use registered wallets. DTCC says that regulatory clearance enabled the testing phase and the planned commercial service.

The initiative is supported by an industry working group of more than 50 firms spanning traditional finance and crypto. Participants include asset managers, broker-dealers, transfer agents and digital-asset infrastructure providers. Named participants include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citadel Securities, Circle, Coinbase and Kraken.

Other industry activity has unfolded alongside the DTCC effort. Transfer agent Computershare reached an agreement with tokenization platform Securitize to issue issuer-sponsored tokens for thousands of companies, and the New York Stock Exchange has pursued partnerships related to tokenized securities.

Frank La Salla, DTCC president and CEO, said in a statement: “Our vision is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization service and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi. We believe tokenization will change how markets work, bringing new levels of liquidity, transparency and efficiency to investors.” Nadine Chakar, DTCC managing director and global head of digital assets, described tokenization as “an important and critical step toward building tomorrow’s digital infrastructure” and said DTCC intends to support a scalable, interoperable and risk-managed Web3 ecosystem.

DTCC’s DTC division processes the majority of U.S. equity and fixed-income trades. By bringing tokenized representations of selected securities into its custody and settlement processes, the corporation aims to integrate blockchain-based instruments with established market plumbing while controlling operational and regulatory risks.

DTCC says the initial rollout will remain limited in scope and focused on high-liquidity instruments to contain risk and simplify testing. Expansion of the service will depend on results from the pilot trades and on ongoing regulatory and market developments.