Financial giant BlackRock has officially joined a major pilot program led by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to tokenize stocks and U.S. Treasuries. The initiative, which operates within a market infrastructure safeguarding approximately $114 trillion in assets, aims to integrate blockchain technology into traditional clearing and custody systems.
According to reports, nearly 40 major financial institutions—including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, and the New York Stock Exchange—are participating in the trial. The pilot is currently testing the tokenization of high-profile assets, such as shares of Microsoft and Circle, the Invesco QQQ Trust, the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, and BlackRock’s iShares 0–3 Month Treasury Bond ETF.
DTCC confirmed that JPMorgan has already completed the first successful conversion, transforming Invesco QQQ Trust ETF shares into a tokenized real-world asset. The pilot utilizes permissioned blockchain environments, specifically Hyperledger Besu and the Canton Network, to ensure that tokenized securities maintain the same liquidity, investor protections, and ownership rights as their traditional counterparts.
The program is scheduled to enter its formal operational phase this October. While the current trial focuses on private, regulated blockchain infrastructure, the DTCC has separately announced plans to expand into public networks, with services on the Stellar blockchain targeted for launch in the first half of 2027. This move follows a broader industry trend toward digital asset integration, mirroring similar initiatives currently being advanced by the U.K. Treasury.