DTCC completes tokenization trial on Canton Network and in-house private network

The leading securities custodian credited with managing over $114 trillion in securities, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has taken the first formal steps in its tokenization arc as the firm completed the conversion of stocks, ETFs and Treasuries into digital tokens on the Canton Network and its in-house Hyperledger Besu.

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, crediting the Wall Street Journal’s Vicky Ge Huang, reported that the test transactions occurred across the two separate blockchains, with Vanguard, BlackRock and JPMorgan among the participating firms.

Today’s tokenization trials are setting up for DTCC to deliver on the October launch date, as Cryptopolitan reported previously. 

The first securities to be tokenized in the trial run were Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV). 

The DTCC tokenization trials happened on two chains

After naming an all-star crew of participating firms and blockchains in earlier publications, specifics about who took part in DTCC’s first public tests were one of the most interesting technical details observers were watching for.

Balchunas answered that the digital conversions occurred on two blockchains:

• HyperLedger Besu, DTCC’s own private network.
• Canton, a  “privacy-enabled open blockchain network” that has grown popular among institutions.

DTCC described the multi-network trial as a strategy to maximize resiliency and scale, which makes sense for DTCC, whose depository subsidiary holds more than $114 trillion in securities, and settled transactions worth $4.7 quadrillion over the past year.

DTCC also processed the transactions via the conventional and digital routes, which Balchunas mentioned let the clearinghouse compare both settlement paths side by side.

Regulatory clarity has cleared the path for DTCC

The DTCC had already laid out the plans for this round of trials in the spring, as Cryptopolitan reported at the time, with the full commercial service set to launch in October 2026.

The clearinghouse only started to lay out its digitization roadmap after a December 2025 no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That missive opened a three-year window to tokenize a defined set of liquid assets, covering the Russell 1000 constituents, major index ETFs, and US Treasury bills, notes and bonds, according to Cryptopolitan’s May coverage.

More than 50 firms have shaped the service through DTCC’s Industry Working Group, a roster that runs from BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to crypto-native players like Circle, Ondo Finance and Anchorage Digital, according to Cryptopolitan.

DTCC President and CEO Frank La Salla has said tokenization will bring “new levels of liquidity, transparency and efficiency to investors.”

DTCC is not the only Wall Street operator chasing the idea. Nasdaq is building a blockchain-based share-issuance framework with Kraken’s parent company, and Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has backed tokenized-stock plans through a deal with OKX.

DTCC’s edge is its position in the settlement layer: because its depository already clears most US equity activity, tokenizing there reaches the assets themselves, not just a trading venue.

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