Morgan Stanley Tokenizes U.S. Stocks and Treasuries Through DTCC

Morgan Stanley said it has turned U.S. stocks and Treasuries into blockchain tokens through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s new tokenization service, putting it among the first of 20 signed-up firms to use the system, Decrypt reported. Crypto Times also reported the bank's statement, which it made in a post on X.

The service went live Oct. 28, DTCC said in its launch release. Its Depository Trust Co. unit holds more than $114 trillion in assets. Twenty firms signed up at launch, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citi, J.P. Morgan, Citadel Securities and UBS.

How a "digital twin" works

DTC already holds the securities on behalf of banks and brokers. Under the new service, an eligible firm asks DTC to mint a token that stands for a security it holds there. DTCC calls the token a digital twin. It keeps the ownership rights, investor protections and economic entitlements of the original, and it can be converted back.

The timing is where it gets interesting. Conversion orders are taken on weekdays from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. Once minted, tokens can move between approved wallets 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a DTC notice says.

The first assets allowed are Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs and U.S. Treasuries, under a December 2025 no-action letter from SEC staff, according to DTCC. The tokens run on the Canton Network and on a private network DTCC operates.

What we don't know yet

Neither DTCC nor Morgan Stanley has said how much value has been tokenized so far. Fees for the service were not in the launch release.

In our opinion: Twenty firms have signed up, but the number to watch is how much actually gets minted. The weekend transfers are the most crypto-like part: a token can change hands on a Saturday while the stock market is closed, with the country's main custodian still behind it. If big banks start using that, tokenization stops being a pilot and starts being plumbing.