Morgan Stanley has become one of the first major banks to tokenize U.S. equities and Treasury securities through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's newly launched tokenization service, the bank confirmed on November 4. The move follows DTCC's launch of the platform on October 28, which began with 20 participating financial institutions including JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Fidelity Investments, State Street and UBS.
Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley's head of digital assets strategy, said: 'The hands-on experience of integrating tokenized securities with established market infrastructure will inform the continued development of the firm's digital asset capabilities as the market evolves.'
DTCC's depository subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company, holds more than $114 trillion in assets under custody. The new service lets eligible institutions create blockchain representations of securities already held at DTC while preserving economic entitlements, ownership rights and investor protections. It initially supports the Canton Network and DTCC's private Besu network, with additional blockchain integrations planned for 2027. The service covers eligible U.S. equities, Treasury securities and exchange-traded funds after regulatory relief granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2025.
Morgan Stanley is separately preparing to support tokenized equity trading through its alternative trading system in the first quarter of 2027, a timeline revised from the second half of 2026. The bank has estimated the tokenized real-world asset market could reach between $3 trillion and $10 trillion by 2030.
The broader tokenization push is gaining momentum: the New York Stock Exchange and parent Intercontinental Exchange are advancing plans for a blockchain-based trading venue, and NYSE named Broadridge, Computershare, Equiniti and Superstate as additional transfer-agent partners alongside Securitize and tZERO.
