DTCC tokenises stocks and government bonds on the blockchain
DTCC, the hub behind US securities settlement with 114 trillion dollars in custody, began real tokenization of stocks, ETFs and government bonds this month. Fifty major financial institutions are taking part. The bridge between traditional finance and blockchain is becoming concrete.
It sounds technical, but it is big news. DTCC — the institution that handles the bulk of US securities settlement and holds over 114 trillion dollars (roughly €100 trillion) in securities in custody — began actually tokenizing financial products on a blockchain this month. No more pilot on paper, but the first live transactions.
What exactly is going live
Through its ComposerX platform, existing securities are turned into tokens — so these are real instruments DTCC already holds, not synthetic copies. In the first phase this covers stocks from the Russell 1000 (the thousand largest US listed companies), major index ETFs and US Treasuries. As its first public blockchain, DTCC chose Stellar, within a broader multi-chain strategy.
Who is taking part
This is no niche experiment. A working group of more than fifty financial institutions is involved, including major banks such as J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citi, trading venues such as NYSE, Nasdaq, Charles Schwab and Robinhood, asset managers such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Invesco, and crypto players such as Circle and Ripple. Rarely have TradFi and crypto sat so squarely at one table.
Chainlink and the next step
For the next phase, DTCC picked Chainlink to power a so-called Collateral AppChain, slated for the fourth quarter: a system for 24/7 pricing, valuation and settlement of collateral. The full roll-out, with broader participation and more volume, is scheduled for October 2026. DTCC chief Frank La Salla calls it ‘successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi’.
What does it mean for Europe?
Europe is not standing still: the EU has its own DLT Pilot Regime, and the announced MiCA review is looking closely at the tokenization of real-world assets. The fact that US market infrastructure is now going live in concrete terms raises the pressure — and the odds of both cooperation and competition between the continents.
Caveat: start small, scale later
Stay level-headed: for now this is limited production with narrow trade flows. DTCC operates under a so-called SEC no-action letter from December 2025, which provides a three-year window. The real scale — and the question of whether this fundamentally changes the market — has yet to prove itself. But that the world's largest settlement house is taking the step is telling in itself.
Sources: Genfinity, DTCC. Last checked: 22 July 2026.