How Stellar became part of DTCC’s tokenization push for Wall Street securities onchain Wall Street’s clearing giant chose a public blockchain with compliance tools built for regulated assets, Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon said. What to know: — U.S. clearing giant DTCC picked Stellar as the first public blockchain to connect to its upcoming tokenized securities settlement platform. — The partnership builds on an almost decade-long collaboration with Securrency, now DTCC Digital Assets, which worked with Stellar to embed compliance tools such as clawbacks, transfer restrictions and identity controls directly into the network, Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon said. — Franklin Templeton’s early work on launching the BENJI tokenized U.S. treasury fund in 2021 helped demonstrate how regulated assets can operate on public networks, Dixon added. DTCC’s decision to connect its upcoming tokenized securities platform to the Stellar (XLM) network marks a significant step in a relationship that has evolved over nearly a decade, according to Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon. Earlier this week, DTCC announced that tokenized assets held through its Depository Trust Company could be accessible on Stellar starting in the first half of 2027. This development is significant as DTCC is a key player in Wall Street’s market utilities, managing over $114 trillion in assets. The Stellar integration aims to facilitate the issuance, settlement, and lifecycle management of tokenized securities, while paving the way for future initiatives involving highly liquid assets such as major indexes and U.S. Treasuries. The origins of the partnership trace back to Securrency, the institutional tokenization platform acquired by DTCC in 2023, which is now known as DTCC Digital Assets. Securrency, Dixon shared with Decryptnews in an interview, collaborated closely with Stellar developers to create features that regulated financial institutions require to issue assets onchain, including clawback functionality, compliance controls, and transfer restrictions. These tools were subsequently integrated directly into the network. «Some of the team has been working with Stellar for a long time,» Dixon remarked. This announcement comes at a time when tokenization is emerging as a significant trend within both cryptocurrency and traditional finance, attracting interest from global banks and asset managers eager to transition conventional financial instruments onto blockchain infrastructure. Tokenization involves the representation of assets like U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, stocks, or private credit as digital tokens that can be issued, traded, and settled on blockchains. Advocates assert that this technology could reduce settlement times, release collateral locked in outdated processes, and ultimately enable markets to function continuously. It represents a potentially massive market, with Standard Chartered estimating $2 trillion in tokenized assets by 2028, while BCG and Ripple predict a market size of $18.9 trillion by 2033. Franklin Templeton’s early investment in Stellar Dixon posited that tokenized assets merely represent the visible aspect of a more extensive infrastructure transformation. «Blockchain excels at maintaining books and records,» she noted. «Tokenization is the product outcome, but it’s all these underlying components that are truly crucial.» This emphasis on record-keeping was one factor that led Franklin Templeton to select Stellar for its onchain money market fund, BENJI. Dixon indicated that the asset manager began investigating Stellar in 2019 and later launched the fund in 2021, aiming to consolidate fund records onto a single shared ledger instead of relying on multiple databases. BENJI became one of the first examples of a regulated tokenized fund and helped pave the way for the current tokenized Treasury market, which has expanded to approximately $15 billion with major players like BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity entering the space. Making public blockchains viable for regulated finance For institutions, however, transferring assets onchain necessitates more than just quicker settlement. Regulated entities must adhere to securities laws, sanctions regulations, and investor protection requirements, creating a demand for blockchain infrastructure capable of supporting identity verification, transfer restrictions, and other compliance measures. This requirement for compliance-ready infrastructure is one reason why Stellar’s longstanding relationship with Securrency has proven advantageous, Dixon noted. Stellar’s architecture enables issuers to incorporate compliance, identity controls, and privacy protections atop an open network, she explained. Asset issuers have the flexibility to determine whether transfers necessitate know-your-customer (KYC) checks, whether assets can be frozen or reclaimed, and which transaction details remain visible. «The base layer will always be open,» Dixon stated. «Then the institution gets to decide how compliance and privacy factors into the process.»