The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation says its depository subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company (DTC), has received a no-action letter from the US Securities and Exchange Commission allowing it to offer a tokenisation service for certain securities held in DTC custody. According to DTCC, the relief enables the service to be offered under existing US securities laws for a period of three years, with an expected start in the second half of 2026.
Under the terms described by DTCC, the service will allow DTC to create digital representations of real-world securities on pre-approved blockchains. The digital versions are intended to mirror the traditional securities in terms of ownership rights, investor protections and entitlements. The no-action letter applies to a defined group of highly liquid assets, including stocks in the Russell 1000 index, exchange-traded funds tracking major indices, and US Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
DTCC notes that the authorisation allows DTC to move ahead with the service more quickly than would otherwise have been possible, subject to the limitations and representations set out in the SEC letter.
Post-trade infrastructure in a tokenised setting
The tokenisation service is planned as a limited production environment and will be available to DTC participants and their clients. DTCC says it will operate across approved layer-1 and layer-2 blockchain networks, with further details on onboarding, wallet registration and network approval processes to be provided at a later stage.
According to DTCC, the initiative builds on nearly a decade of work exploring distributed ledger technology together with market participants, peers and technology providers. The stated focus has been on assessing how blockchain-based representations of securities could be used while maintaining the protections and accountability associated with DTC’s existing post-trade infrastructure.
