DTCC Plans to Open Tokenization Service by End of October With 25 Securities on Canton and Besu

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation plans to switch on its Tokenization Service by the end of October. As of today, Oct. 21, the service has not yet gone live.

DTCC has outlined roughly $30 trillion in assets eligible for tokenization. That is about a quarter of the more than $114 trillion held at The Depository Trust Company (DTC), its central securities depository, according to a DTCC report dated Oct. 16.

The launch itself will be much smaller than that headline number.

What launches first

The service opens with just 25 instruments. They include U.S. Treasuries, major exchange-traded funds and stocks from the Russell 1000 index.

Each token will be backed one-for-one by a security that DTC already holds in custody. Tokens keep the same CUSIP identifier, legal rights and investor protections as the underlying security. DTC stays the official record keeper.

Conversion orders will run during designated business hours, with DTCC targeting processing times of 15 minutes or less. Transfers between registered wallets can happen around the clock.

For Treasuries, distributions and maturities will be handled on the ledger from day one, DTCC said.

Two closed networks, no crossing between them

At launch the service runs on two networks. One is the Canton Network, which offers selective disclosure of transaction data. The other is a private DTCC environment built on Hyperledger Besu.

Both are permissioned, so participants are vetted and compliance-controlled. Neither is an open blockchain. Tokens on Canton follow the CIP-56 standard. Tokens on Besu use ERC-20, the same format behind much of the Ethereum ecosystem.

The design has a limit. Peer-to-peer transfers work only between registered wallets on the same chain. A token on Canton cannot simply move to a wallet on Besu at launch.

That design means the same ETF tokenized on both networks would exist as two separate pools. Whether that splits liquidity is among the open questions the launch will test. DTCC's answer, based on its stated plan, is to broaden network support over time rather than rely on one chain.

Regulatory cover and the test run

The SEC issued a No-Action Letter in December 2025 allowing a controlled pilot focused on highly liquid assets. The letter runs three years, and the service operates under it. This is a limited, conditional green light rather than a new rulebook.

On July 15, more than 30 firms took part in a production event, with BlackRock and JPMorgan among the participants. They converted DTC-held equities, ETFs and Treasuries into tokens and used them in live trades. Those covered collateral pledges, securities lending, Treasury repo, equity delivery-versus-payment and delivery-versus-delivery, and central-counterparty margin workflows.

The industry working group behind the design had grown to more than 100 members and partners by July.

What DTCC says comes next

DTCC says additional capabilities are anticipated in 2027. Stellar is scheduled for integration in the first half of 2027 under the SEP-41 standard, alongside Circle's Arc network. DTCC is already among Arc's founding validators, and Arc went live on mainnet in September.

The roadmap also includes on-chain settlement, collateral management, netting, digital cash and expanded corporate actions. DTCC describes the effort as phased, preserving the existing depository framework rather than replacing it.

The case DTCC makes for the project is practical. Its research suggests tokenizing about $30 trillion in assets could improve liquidity, make collateral easier to move and lower transaction costs. Those are projections from the sponsor of the project, not results from live operation.

What to watch

The first test is how fast activity grows beyond the 30-plus firms that took part in July once commercial access opens. The second is whether the same-chain limit holds back trading volume until Stellar and Arc arrive in 2027.

The gap between $30 trillion in eligible assets and 25 live securities also matters. The three-year clock on the SEC relief is also ticking, with DTCC having until late 2028 under the current No-Action framework to show the model works.