The U.S. clearing house DTCC is pushing the tokenization of securities onto public blockchains. According to its announcement this week, tokenized assets held in its Depository Trust Company could be used via the Stellar network as early as the first half of 2027.
This move has attracted attention because DTCC is one of the core market infrastructures on Wall Street, covering assets exceeding $114 trillion. This integration is not merely about adding another blockchain channel; it points to the gradual standardization of the issuance, settlement, and ongoing management of tokenized securities.
The basis for cooperation comes from Securrency
Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, told CoinDesk that DTCC chose Stellar partly because of their long-standing partnership with Securrency, an institutional-grade tokenization platform that DTCC acquired and integrated into DTCC Digital Assets in 2023.
Dixon stated that Securrency had collaborated with the Stellar development team for years to embed features required by regulated financial institutions into the network, including asset recovery, transfer restrictions, and identity controls. These capabilities later became part of the Stellar network to support compliant issuance and transfer.
The goal is to put regulated assets on the blockchain.
The article mentions that tokenization has become a focus of attention for both the crypto industry and traditional finance. Tokenization refers to mapping assets such as US Treasury bonds, money market funds, stocks, or private credit onto the blockchain in the form of digital tokens for issuance, trading, and settlement.
Supporters believe that this type of infrastructure has the potential to shorten settlement times, free up collateral tied up in traditional processes, and drive the market towards longer timeframes. Stellar, however, argues that the real key factor is not just the "token" itself, but whether the underlying capabilities such as ledger recording, identity verification, and access control can meet regulatory requirements.
Franklin Templeton was the first to test the waters.
Dixon also mentioned that Franklin Templeton began evaluating Stellar as early as 2019 and launched the on-chain money market fund BENJI in 2021. This product is considered one of the earliest examples of regulated tokenized funds and provided a reference for the later on-chain US Treasury market.
Currently, the tokenized US Treasury market has grown to approximately $15 billion, with institutions such as BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Fidelity having entered this field. As traditional financial infrastructure like DTCC begins to connect to public blockchains, the issuance and circulation of regulated assets on open networks is moving from pilot programs to wider applications.
Compliance capability is a prerequisite for institutional adoption.
For financial institutions, putting assets on-chain is not just about faster settlement. Securities regulations, sanctions requirements, and investor protection rules all influence how on-chain assets are issued and transferred.
According to Dixon, Stellar's design allows issuers to overlay compliance and privacy controls on open networks. For example, issuers can decide whether transfers must undergo KYC verification, whether assets can be frozen or recovered, and which transaction information is publicly visible. These capabilities are one of the reasons it was selected by the DTCC.
