DTCC Handles $3.7 Quadrillion in Transactions a Year—Now It’s Tokenizing Treasuries on Canton

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation unveiled plans on Wednesday to issue tokenized securities on Canton Network, the privacy-enabled blockchain built for financial institutions.

The infrastructure company, which processed $3.7 quadrillion in transactions last year, said the process will initially involve the creation of tokens representing U.S. Treasuries. The move marks DTCC’s first step in a years-long roadmap, according to a press release.

The securities will be held by DTCC for safekeeping, underscoring efforts on Wall Street to tap blockchains for financial efficiencies, while accommodating existing rules. Still, DTCC’s announcement showcased its deepening ties to the digital realm.

DTCC said that it will assume a leadership position within Canton’s decentralized governance structure. Moving forward, DTCC will be co-chair of Canton Foundation alongside Euroclear, the Belgium-based infrastructure provider servicing overseas markets.

In a statement, DTCC CEO Frank La Salla said the endeavor creates a framework to bring “high-value tokenization use cases to market,” which will expand to other networks and assets.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a three-year pilot for DTCC last week, allowing the company to issue tokens on public or private blockchains. Although Canton was named first, a list of supported networks is expected at a later date.

Canton’s ecosystem boasts $6 trillion assets, with over 600 participating institutions, Digital Asset, the company behind the blockchain, said in a press release earlier this month. The network is designed to have configurable privacy and “institutional-grade compliance.”

Canton’s native cryptocurrency CC, which began trading last month, rose 2.6% to $0.075 on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. Its price has fallen 56% since its debut.

Earlier this month, Digital Asset disclosed strategic investments from BNY, among the U.S.’s oldest banks, fintech iCapital, Nasdaq, and S&P Global. Earlier this year, the company reported $135 million in funding from names including Goldman Sachs.

Canton supports privacy by default through sub-transaction privacy. On most blockchains, transactions are public for all to see. But Canton’s users can only see aspects of transactions that directly apply to them, on a need-to-know basis.

On X, Don Wilson, CEO of trading firm DRW, described Wednesday’s announcement as a harbinger for Wall Street’s incremental embrace of digital assets that reflects “a fundamental shift in how markets will operate going forward.”

“The transformation is accelerating, and this is just the start,” he added.