Update below.
From The Trade, December:
DTCC receives SEC no-action relief to launch tokenisation service
The SEC authorisation covers an initial three-year period, spanning instruments including securities within the Russell 1000 index, ETFs linked to major benchmarks, and US Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has been cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to move ahead with a new tokenisation service, following the issuance of a no-action letter.
The letter allows its subsidiary DTC to tokenise its real-world assets and make those digital representations available on pre-approved blockchains.
The SEC authorisation spans an initial three-year period and covers a defined range of highly liquid instruments, including securities within the Russell 1000 index, ETFs linked to major benchmarks, and US Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
The service is expected to go live in the second half of 2026 and will initially operate in a controlled production environment for DTC Participants and their clients.
Digital versions of these assets will carry the same investor protections, rights and entitlements as their traditional forms, with the same operational safeguards applied across DTC’s existing infrastructure.
Frank La Salla, president and chief executive of DTCC, said: “I want to thank the SEC for its trust in us. Tokenising the US securities market has the potential to yield transformational benefits such as collateral mobility, new trading modalities, 24/7 access and programmable assets, but this will only be achievable if market infrastructure provides a robust foundation to usher in this new digital era.”....
....MUCH MORE
If I recall correctly, in the event of a major market dislocation, DTCC would be considered the actual owner of the assets, which would surprise quite a few people.
I should probably look it up.
UPDATE: it appears I mis-remembered. It is the creditors of a clearing company that end up with the asset. UCC:
(c )If a clearing corporation does not have sufficient financial assets to satisfy both its obligations to entitlement holders who have security entitlements with respect to a financial asset and its obligation to a creditor of the clearing corporation who has a security interest in that financial asset, the claim of the creditor has priority over the claims of entitlement holders.
—Uniform Commercial Code Law Section 8-511
Priority Among Security Interests and Entitlement Holders
As of the last balance sheet (March 31, 2025) net assets of DTCC were $4,460,400,000.
So if one of DTCCs Central Clearing Counterparties gets stuck guaranteeing a big fail, that's it, that's what the whole system rests upon.
I only bring this up because I can't get the image of an upside-down pyramid out of my head.
And we'll just pile more/faster on top (bottom).
It's probably nothing to worry about.
