The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced a strategic partnership with Digital Asset Holdings and the Canton Network to tokenize securities held by its subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company (DTC). This collaboration marks a pivotal step toward bringing traditional financial assets on-chain, potentially transforming how markets function in the digital era.
The initiative follows DTCC’s recent receipt of a No-Action Letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 11, 2025. This regulatory milestone authorizes DTC to implement and operate a new tokenization service for select assets under its custody, creating a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized financial ecosystems.
DTCC teams up with Digital Asset Holdings and Canton Network to tokenize DTC-custodied securities on-chain. This marks the first step toward real-world assets on DLT—driving efficiency and market transparency.
— DTCC (@The_DTCC) December 17, 2025
Read the press release: https://t.co/ca2yaUXZ2I pic.twitter.com/GWXS4iP5Pi
Bridging Traditional and Digital Finance
Through this partnership, DTCC will enable a subset of U.S. Treasury securities custodied at DTC to be minted on the Canton Network for the first time. The organizations aim to develop a minimum viable product in a controlled production environment during the first half of 2026, with plans to expand both the scale and scope of the project in subsequent phases based on client interest.
Frank La Salla, CEO of DTCC, emphasized the strategic importance of this collaboration: “This partnership creates a roadmap to bring real-world, high-value tokenization use cases to market, starting with U.S. Treasury securities and eventually expanding to a broad spectrum of DTC-eligible assets across network providers.”
The tokenization service represents a significant advancement in DTCC’s digital asset strategy. The new system will allow DTC Participants and their clients to convert select supported assets between traditional book-entry and digital tokenized forms, creating secure and compliant access to emerging blockchain ecosystems.
Maintaining Investor Protections in Digital Form
A crucial aspect of this initiative is the preservation of investor rights and protections. DTCC confirms that DTC-issued tokens will carry all the same legal and economic rights as traditional book-entry securities currently held in custody. This equivalence ensures that participants maintain identical ownership rights regardless of whether they hold assets in traditional or tokenized form.
The service will initially support highly liquid assets, including stocks in the Russell 1000 index, ETFs tracking major indices, and U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes. DTCC’s open tokenization model will facilitate the use of multiple token standards, embedded compliance mechanisms, and multi-blockchain interoperability.
To support the initiative, DTCC will leverage its ComposerX suite of platforms, which is specifically designed to facilitate tokenization and ensure interoperability across market infrastructures. The company’s smart contracts will initially incorporate compliance and distribution controls while connecting tokenized assets with reference data stored on-chain.
How the Tokenization Process Works
The conversion process is designed to be straightforward. When a DTC Participant wants to hold assets in tokenized form, they issue a “conversion order” instructing DTC to convert the assets to tokens and deliver them to their registered digital wallet. Converting tokens back to traditional form simply requires instructing DTC to reverse the process.
This system creates a unified liquidity pool across both traditional and blockchain-based markets. Since both traditional and tokenized versions share the same CUSIP identifier, assets can move freely between ecosystems, providing immediate access to global liquidity pools. Additionally, tokenized assets will seamlessly flow between registered Participants’ wallets within approved blockchain ecosystems on a 24/7 basis.
DTC-issued tokens incorporate comprehensive controls, including the ability to mint, burn, force transfer, clawback, pause/unpause, and freeze/unfreeze tokens. These features help meet compliance requirements while providing distribution and recovery capabilities that institutions require.
Looking Toward a Tokenized Future
Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz framed the partnership as a step toward interoperable financial infrastructure. He emphasized future-proof systems that unlock liquidity, new products, and operational efficiency. DTCC’s involvement accelerates adoption while setting a foundation for long-term innovation.
DTCC will also co-chair the Canton Foundation alongside Euroclear. This role allows DTCC to help define standards for decentralized financial infrastructure. As a result, governance aligns more closely with real market needs.
The rollout will occur in phases, starting with secure access to tokenized financial instruments. DTCC expects support for multiple compliant blockchain networks, as outlined in the SEC’s No-Action Letter. Together, these efforts signal a practical shift toward tokenized markets built on regulated, interoperable infrastructure.
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