The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has granted a much-needed “no-action” letter to a subsidiary of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), allowing it to offer new securities market tokenization services.
DTCC announced Thursday that its subsidiary, Depository Trust Company (DTC), has been granted permission to launch “a new service to tokenize real-world assets held by DTC in a controlled operating environment.”
DTC will tokenize a “set of highly liquid assets” including the Russell 1000 Index, exchange-traded funds that track major indexes, U.S. Treasury bills, bonds and banknotes, and the service is expected to be rolled out in the second half of 2026.
DTCC operates critical market infrastructure and provides clearing, settlement, and trading in U.S. securities. The SEC’s no-action letter gives the SEC significant approval of the plan and confirms that the SEC will not take enforcement action if the proposed product works as described.
DTCC CEO Frank La Sala said, “We would like to thank the SEC for their confidence in us.” “Tokenization of U.S. securities markets could bring transformative benefits such as collateral mobility, new means of trading, 24/7 access, and programmable assets.”
In a historic milestone, DTC has received a no-action letter from the SEC to tokenize certain assets held by DTC. By leveraging blockchain, DTCC aims to bridge TradFi and DeFi to promote a more resilient, inclusive, and efficient global financial system. https://t.co/yYNaHfvjcS pic.twitter.com/E4W47rWBIc
— DTCC (@The_DTCC) December 11, 2025
SEC clears gray area with no-action letter
DTCC said the no-action letter will allow its subsidiary to “provide tokenization services to DTC participants and their customers on a pre-approved blockchain for three years.”
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“DTC has the ability to tokenize real-world assets, and the digital version comes with all the same entitlements, investor protections, and ownership rights as traditional forms of assets,” the company said.
Although the SEC rarely issues no-action letters, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, a former crypto lobbyist, was industry-friendly and outlined how crypto products are regulated by his agency.
Over the past few months, the SEC has distributed two no-action letters to the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) crypto project.
In late September, the SEC also issued a no-action letter clearing the way for investment advisory firms to use state trust companies as custodians of cryptocurrencies.
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