The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) today – 15th July, 2026 – declared that tokenisation has “become a reality” as it conducted live demonstrations of its DTC Tokenization Service, which it plans to officially launch this October.
In creating its tokenisation offering, the DTCC was guided by a 50-member DTCC Industry Working Group comprised of major TradFi and DeFi players, including custodians, asset managers, brokers, trading venues, application and back-office service providers, and others.During the demonstrations, the DTCC successfully tokenised a set of assets, including stocks that are constituents of the Russell 1000 Index (which represents the 1,000 largest publicly traded US companies by market cap), as well as ETFs tracking major indices and US Treasury bills, bonds and notes.
All of the assets tokenised are covered by a December 2025 No-Action Letter granted to the DTC* by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That letter permits the DTC to offer its tokenisation capability for a defined set of highly liquid assets for three years.
The DTC Tokenisation Service draws on the DTCC’s ComposerX application suite, which was originally built by Securrency, a FinTech that it acquired in December 2023. ComposerX consists of three principal modules that collectively provide functionality to create and manage tokenised assets across their lifecycle. The modules are:
ComposerX Factory – which serves as the core tokenisation engine responsible for converting traditional real-world assets into digital tokens that comply with standards such as ERC-20 and ERC-3643. This process embeds crucial regulatory, recovery, and compliance controls natively into the asset token.
ComposerX LedgerScan – which functions as a real-time data aggregation, monitoring and reconciliation layer across the digital financial ecosystem. It tracks near-real-time token transactions and balances across various DLT networks, consolidating and normalising on-chain data back into traditional off-chain databases. This component bridges the gap between decentralised ledgers and existing legacy accounting or custodial models to ensure a single, audited source of truth.
ComposerX Capital Markets Platform (CMP) – which is a DLT-agnostic engine built to automate and manage the full lifecycle of a tokenised asset. It handles end-to-end portfolio workflows, including primary investor onboarding, distribution, transaction processing, trading, and post-trade integration. It also provides critical digital transfer agent functions like dividend distribution and corporate actions servicing.
Currently, ComposerX supports three DLT platforms, though support for others will likely be added in the future. The current DLTs are:
DTCC AppChain – an enterprise-grade, Ethereum-compatible blockchain designed for secure, permissioned, and regulated business applications, based on open-source Hyperledger Besu technology.
Canton Network – a public permissioned blockchain used at scale in regulated markets, combining institutional-grade privacy with native interoperability for digital assets.
Stellar – a purpose-built blockchain for regulated financial services with compliance-forward asset and privacy controls, 10+ years of reliable service, and a consensus protocol run by publicly identified validators.
A key component of ComposerX is its Compliance Aware Token Framework (CATF), which is a patented architectural system that embeds regulatory and operational rules directly into asset tokens to prevent compliance breaches before they occur in real time. Instead of relying on external gatekeepers, it shifts the burden of compliance to the smart contract level, enabling continuous enforcement of multi-jurisdictional laws as a transaction executes.
Within the CATF, the DTCC has adopted the ERC-3643 open-source token standard as the EVM-compatible tool used to deploy compliance rules on-chain. These rules include distribution controls via registered wallets, transaction control and reversibility and regulatory clearance.
When it launches later this year, the DTC Tokenization Service will enable the tokenisation of real-world, DTC-custodied assets that provide the same entitlements, investor protections and ownership rights as the assets held in traditional form. Today, the DTC custodies assets valued at more than $114 trillion.
* DTC for Depository Trust Company, which is a Central Securities Depository owned by the DTCC.
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