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DTCC Picks Solana as the Next Home for Its Tokenized Stocks, ETFs and Treasuries, Targeting Late 2027

DTCC will connect its DTC Tokenization Service to Solana in the second half of 2027, letting eligible DTC-held stocks, ETFs and Treasuries be issued as tokens on the network.

Written By :MINRK
DTCC Picks Solana as the Next Home for Its Tokenized Stocks, ETFs and Treasuries, Targeting Late 2027

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1. DTCC Solana Integration Planned for the Second Half of 2027

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the firm at the center of US securities settlement, said on Thursday, November 12, 2026, that it will connect its DTC Tokenization Service to Solana (SOL). The DTCC Solana integration, planned for the second half of 2027, would let eligible securities held at its Depository Trust Company subsidiary be represented as tokens on the blockchain.

The plan extends a service that only recently went into production. Under the arrangement, assets that already sit in custody at the Depository Trust Company (DTC) could be converted into tokenized form and held or moved on Solana, while the underlying securities remain within DTCC's regulated system.

To understand why the decision matters, it helps to know what DTCC does. Through its subsidiaries, the firm clears and settles the vast majority of US stock and bond trades and acts as the central securities depository that keeps records of who owns what. When an investor buys a share through a broker, the final transfer of ownership typically runs through DTCC's systems. A move by this institution to issue tokens on a public blockchain is therefore a decision made by the operator of the market's core infrastructure, not by a startup at its edges.

Solana's official account repeated the announcement and the second-half 2027 timeline shortly after DTCC made it public, signaling that the network's backers see the move as a milestone in their effort to attract traditional financial institutions.

2. What is DTCC tokenization?

DTCC tokenization refers to the DTC Tokenization Service (DTS), which creates tokenized digital twins of securities that are held at DTC. Each token mirrors a real security in DTC's custody, so investors can hold and transfer a blockchain-based version without the security ever leaving the established settlement system.

Scale is what makes the service notable. DTC holds more than $114 trillion in assets in custody, which places it at the heart of how stocks, bonds and other instruments change hands in the United States. Few institutions are more central to the plumbing of American capital markets.

The digital twin model is a deliberate design choice. Rather than moving securities out of the depository and onto a blockchain, DTCC keeps the official asset where it has always been and issues a token that represents it. This keeps the existing legal framework around custody, ownership records and corporate actions intact, while allowing the tokenized version to travel on networks that settle transactions in seconds.

DTS went live on October 28 on two networks: the Canton Network and DTCC's own private blockchain, which is built on the Besu framework. Besu is an Ethereum-compatible client often used for permissioned enterprise networks, while Canton was designed with privacy and interoperability features aimed at regulated financial firms.

DTCC has said more networks will follow in 2027. According to a company fact sheet, Solana will join Stellar and Arc, the blockchain developed by stablecoin issuer Circle, as networks expected to be added that year.

3. Which Assets Can Be Tokenized

The service does not cover every security DTC holds. Under a no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), DTS is limited to a defined group of highly liquid instruments.

Those instruments are stocks in the Russell 1000 index, exchange-traded funds that track major indexes, and US Treasuries. The Russell 1000 tracks roughly the 1,000 largest US public companies by market value, so the stock universe already includes most of the names that dominate American equity trading.

A no-action letter is a statement from SEC staff that they will not recommend enforcement action if a firm proceeds with an activity in the way it has described. For a project like DTS, it provides regulatory comfort without the need for new rules, but it also sets boundaries on what the service can do. Limiting the program to deep, liquid markets is a cautious way to introduce tokenized versions of securities while keeping risks manageable.

Major banks have already started using the service. Morgan Stanley said the week before the Solana announcement that it had tokenized US stocks and Treasuries through DTS, an early sign that large broker-dealers are willing to put real assets through the new system.

4. La Salla and Steele on Choice and Protections

DTCC chief executive Frank La Salla presented the Solana integration as a way to widen access. He said the firm is bringing regulated, DTC-tokenized securities to another major blockchain ecosystem, which gives market participants more choice over where they access tokenized assets.

That emphasis on choice reflects a broader strategy. By supporting several networks rather than a single chain, DTCC can meet clients wherever they already operate, whether on permissioned systems favored by banks or on public blockchains with large developer and user communities.

Brian Steele, president of DTCC Clearing & Securities Services, addressed the question many investors are likely to ask first: whether a token on a public blockchain carries the same rights as a traditionally held share. He said tokens issued on Solana will keep the same investor protections, ownership rights and regulatory safeguards that apply to securities held the conventional way.

That assurance matters because one of the main concerns about tokenized stocks has been whether holders actually own the underlying security, or merely a claim on it. Because DTS tokens are digital twins of assets held at DTC, DTCC is positioning them as equivalent in substance to the securities they represent.

5. Why Solana Has Been Courting Wall Street

The announcement lands as Solana pushes hard to win business from traditional finance. Nick Ducoff, head of institutional at the Solana Foundation, said institutions choose the network because it already handles real financial activity at scale.

Ducoff said institutions are already issuing assets, settling transactions and deploying capital on Solana. His comments were shared by Solana's official account alongside news of the DTCC plan.

The foundation has also been building infrastructure aimed at institutional users. Last month it unveiled an open standard for institutional settlement, developed with input from J.P. Morgan. Shared standards of this kind help large firms connect to a network in a consistent way, reducing the custom engineering each participant would otherwise need.

Solana also recently completed its Alpenglow upgrade, which cut transaction finality to roughly 150 milliseconds. Finality is the point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed, and for settlement systems it is one of the most important technical properties. Faster finality means trades can be treated as complete almost immediately, a feature that appeals to institutions used to tightly controlled settlement windows.

6. Tokenized Stock Trading on Solana Is Already Taking Shape

DTCC is not the only firm looking to bring US equities onto Solana. Trading platform Formation has notified the SEC that it plans to trade tokenized US stocks on the network.

Formation intends to begin with shares of Galaxy and Forward Industries, two publicly traded companies, before expanding its lineup. The filing shows that market operators are preparing to give investors exposure to US equities through tokens settled on Solana rather than only through conventional brokerage accounts.

Taken together, the Formation filing and the DTCC plan show two different routes to the same destination. One involves a trading venue offering tokenized shares directly, while the other involves the core settlement institution of US markets creating official tokenized representations of securities it already holds.

7. What It Means for Tokenization and Solana

For the tokenization sector, the DTCC decision is a strong endorsement of public blockchains as venues for regulated assets. The service launched on a privacy-focused institutional network and on a private chain, and its expansion to Solana, Stellar and Circle's Arc shows DTCC is willing to work with networks that operate in the open.

For Solana, being chosen by the company that sits behind more than $114 trillion in custodied assets adds weight to the foundation's argument that the network is ready for institutional finance. It also places Solana in direct comparison with the other chains DTCC has selected, each of which will be judged on reliability, cost and ease of integration.

The choice of networks also hints at how DTCC is weighing the market. Canton and the Besu-based private chain cater to firms that want controlled access, while Solana, Stellar and Arc are public networks with their own ecosystems of wallets, applications and liquidity. Supporting both categories allows DTCC to serve institutions with very different preferences.

For investors, the practical effect is still some distance away. Tokenized versions of Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs and Treasuries on Solana are not expected until the second half of 2027, and their reach will depend on which brokers and platforms choose to offer them.

8. What Comes Next

The next milestones are already set out. DTS remains live on the Canton Network and DTCC's Besu-based private chain, and Morgan Stanley's early use gives an indication of how large firms are approaching it.

In 2027, DTCC expects to add Stellar, Circle's Arc and Solana, with the Solana connection scheduled for the second half of the year. Until then, the scope of the program will remain bounded by the SEC no-action letter, which restricts it to Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs and US Treasuries.

Market participants will be watching how quickly other banks and broker-dealers follow Morgan Stanley onto the service, and how Formation's planned trading of tokenized stocks on Solana develops in parallel. Together, those developments will show whether tokenized securities move from pilot projects into routine use across US markets.

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