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Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the US's main securities depository and clearing giant, officially launched the first practical testing phase of its new blockchain platform aimed at converting traditional stocks and government bonds into digital tokens.
Around 40 of the world's largest financial institutions and technology providers are participating in the large-scale trials, led by industry titans including Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and the New York Stock Exchange.
The essence of the experiment is that, instead of running simulations in an isolated sandbox, the companies are moving real assets held in custody at DTCC onto the blockchain. The resulting tokens function as fully fledged digital twins of traditional stocks and bonds, preserving all investor rights, corporate terms and dividend payments.
The pilot group selected the market's most liquid instruments to test the new digital infrastructure:
- Shares of technology giant Microsoft;
- Shares of fintech platform Circle Internet Group;
- The Invesco QQQ Trust, which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index;
- The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the leading fund tracking the broader US market;
- The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF, as well as US government bonds with different maturities.
Breaking down the trades behind the DTCC trial launch
During today's trading session, participants divided responsibilities to test core market mechanisms on the blockchain in detail. Citadel Securities, the largest US market maker, and API brokerage platform Alpaca carried out a direct conversion of traditional shares into tokenized positions.
Investment giant Vanguard and broker DriveWealth completed a Delivery-versus-Delivery transaction, directly and instantly exchanging one set of tokenized shares for other digital assets, a process that takes several days in the traditional financial system.
At the same time, BNP Paribas and Citadel Securities tested securities lending by locking tokenized assets as collateral against financial obligations directly on the blockchain.
JPMorgan tested the submission of on-chain instructions by tokenizing part of its holdings in the Invesco QQQ fund for interbank operations, while BlackRock tested the technology for round-the-clock liquidity management across its flagship funds.
The current tests will continue until the end of the summer. The official commercial launch of DTCC's tokenization program is scheduled for October 2026. From that point, any financial institution will be able to convert its portfolios to blockchain-based form through standard infrastructure.
The next fundamental stage is planned for the first half of 2027. DTCC has already scheduled the platform's integration with public blockchains, including the Stellar network, which would directly connect the liquidity of institutional giants with the open crypto market.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
