DTCC has formed a tokenization working group for U.S. markets and tapped Ondo alongside BlackRock, Goldman, JPMorgan, Circle, and others to help design how equities and Treasuries move on-chain.
Summary
- DTCC has formed an industry working group to design tokenization standards for U.S. capital markets, with Ondo joining members spanning both Wall Street and DeFi.
- Participants include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citadel Securities, the New York Stock Exchange, Circle, Fireblocks, and Robinhood.
- DTCC, which sits on more than $114 trillion in assets and processes around $3.7 quadrillion in annual transactions, is building a tokenization service to move core market processes on-chain.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation has launched an industry working group to push forward tokenization in U.S. capital markets, with tokenization specialist Ondo Finance confirming it has been selected to participate.
DTCC pulls Ondo into the heart of tokenization design
According to Ondo’s announcement, the group brings together heavyweights from traditional finance and crypto, including asset managers like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America, market makers Citadel Securities, market operators like the New York Stock Exchange, and crypto-native firms Circle, Fireblocks, and Robinhood.
The mandate is to help DTCC define common standards for how real-world assets such as U.S. equities and Treasuries are represented, settled, and serviced on permissioned and public blockchains, ensuring that tokenized instruments remain interoperable with existing post-trade infrastructure.
DTCC, which provides custody and settlement plumbing for nearly all U.S. securities, oversees more than $100–$114 trillion in assets and processes roughly $3.7 quadrillion in transactions annually, giving any technical standard it backs outsized influence over the future of on-chain markets.
In prior commentary, Nadine Chakar, global head of DTCC Digital Assets, described the “$75 trillion tokenization opportunity” in mature markets, saying that “bringing the benefits of tokenization to mature markets which collectively are over $75 trillion is a tremendous opportunity.”
DTCC’s on-chain pivot and La Salla’s vision
DTCC’s push comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-action letter in late 2025, clearing its DTC subsidiary to operate a controlled tokenization service for DTC‑custodied assets, with rollout expected in the second half of 2026.
In a DTCC explainer, the firm said it plans to use a platform suite called ComposerX to tokenize U.S. Treasuries and other securities and to “bring the core processes of the U.S. capital markets on-chain” while preserving existing investor protections and regulatory oversight.
DTCC president and CEO Frank La Salla has argued that “tokenization will significantly change the way markets operate,” promising it will bring “new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to investors” by making assets programmable and settlement closer to real time.
He has also framed the initiative as less about speculative tokens and more about “tokenizing financial infrastructure,” saying the goal is to bridge traditional finance and DeFi so that “institutionally custodied equities and Treasuries can gain blockchain-native liquidity, programmability, and near-real-time settlement.”
A recent crypto.news overview described the SEC’s green light for DTCC’s tokenization service as a “historic crypto pivot by a $100 trillion custodian,” noting that the first wave will focus on highly liquid equities and government debt.
Another crypto.news analysis highlighted DTCC’s partnership with Digital Asset to tokenize U.S. Treasuries, arguing that adoption could “generate significant operational and financial efficiencies across market participants.”
A separate crypto.news feature stressed that by pulling in specialists like Ondo alongside BlackRock and major banks, DTCC is signaling that tokenization is moving from pilots to the core of U.S. market structure.
