BlackRock has joined a Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation pilot that has begun tokenizing stocks and U.S. Treasuries within a market infrastructure that safeguards about $114 trillion in assets.
Summary
- DTCC has launched a tokenization pilot with BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and nearly 40 financial firms.
- Microsoft, Circle, QQQ, SPY, and BlackRock Treasury ETF are among the first assets being tokenized.
- The pilot uses Hyperledger Besu and Canton, while Stellar-based custody tokenization is planned for 2027.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, the New York Stock Exchange, and nearly 40 financial firms are participating in DTCC’s latest tokenization initiative.
The pilot focuses on securities already held at the clearinghouse, allowing participating firms to test blockchain-based versions of traditional financial assets while keeping them within DTCC’s existing custody framework.
Live tokenization begins with major public market assets
The first phase of the pilot has started with DTCC tokenizing shares of Microsoft and Circle alongside the Invesco QQQ Trust, the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, and BlackRock’s iShares 0–3 Month Treasury Bond ETF. DTCC has stated that these tokenized assets will be stored at the clearinghouse using blockchain infrastructure.
Participating firms will use the assets in live blockchain transactions covering collateral transfers, repo agreements, and equity trades during the trial. The program is expected to move into its formal operational phase in October after the current testing period.
Separately, DTCC confirmed through a live update that JPMorgan completed the first conversion in the pilot by turning shares of the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF into a tokenized real-world asset.
According to DTCC, the conversion demonstrates that tokenized versions of traditional securities can function inside existing market infrastructure while preserving the same liquidity, investor protections, transparency, and ownership rights as the underlying assets.
Private blockchain leads current rollout while public network plans continue
Rather than using public layer-1 blockchains such as Ethereum or Solana, DTCC has chosen to settle transactions on either its private Hyperledger Besu blockchain or the Canton Network, depending on the infrastructure selected by participating institutions. The approach keeps settlement within permissioned blockchain environments designed for regulated financial markets.
Meanwhile, the project arrives as tokenization continues to gain traction across major financial institutions. The United Kingdom’s Treasury is also advancing a £33 billion tokenization initiative through its Wholesale Digital Markets Taskforce, with BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs among the firms participating in that effort.
Additional plans extend beyond the current pilot. As previously reported by crypto.news, DTCC and the Stellar Development Foundation are preparing DTC custody asset tokenization services on the Stellar public blockchain.
The partners have targeted the first half of 2027 for the launch of live tokenized assets, introducing Stellar as one of the public blockchain networks in DTCC’s developing multi-chain tokenization strategy.
For now, however, the active pilot remains centered on permissioned blockchain infrastructure, giving participating firms an opportunity to test tokenized securities within DTCC’s existing clearing and custody system before the program expands further.
