Catenaa, Thursday, December 18, 2025- The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation will begin a limited pilot to place blockchain-based representations of US Treasury securities held at its depository onto a distributed ledger, following approval from US securities regulators.
The initiative marks the first live test of onchain assets directly linked to custody at the Depository Trust Company, DTCC’s central securities depository.
The project is being conducted with Digital Asset and will run on the Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain built to support compliance controls and restricted transfers among approved participants.
Under the pilot, select DTC participants will be allowed to convert entitlements tied to US Treasurys held on DTC’s books into tokenized representations.
The underlying securities will remain recorded on DTCC’s centralized systems, while the tokens will function as digital representations of ownership rather than independent securities.
The pilot follows the issuance of a no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission that permits DTC to test tokenization of certain security entitlements within a narrowly defined regulatory framework.
DTCC said the initial trial is scheduled for the first half of 2026, with the scope potentially expanding depending on regulatory conditions and client interest.
The test will rely on DTCC’s ComposerX platform in combination with Canton’s blockchain infrastructure. DTCC has positioned the effort as a way to examine tokenization benefits while preserving existing legal and operational safeguards.
The move comes as tokenized US Treasurys have grown into one of the largest segments of the real-world asset market. About $9 billion in tokenized Treasury products are currently outstanding, driven by demand for dollar-based yield that can settle onchain.
