DTCC’s $3.7 Quadrillion Backbone Picks Private Canton Chain for Treasuries; Crypto Natives Cry Foul
Wall Street’s clearing giant bypasses Ethereum and Solana for a permissioned network to tokenize U.S. Treasuries, backed by a rare SEC no-action letter.
The Wall Street Whale Swims Private
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The central nervous system of U.S. markets that processed $3.7 quadrillion in 2024. Has selected the permissioned Canton Network to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities. The move, announced Dec. 17 alongside a critical SEC no-action letter, effectively greenlights institutional-grade settlement on a private ledger, bypassing public chains like Ethereum ($2,989) and Solana ($125).
Privacy Over Public Ledgers
This is not a sandbox experiment. With over $100 trillion in assets under custody, the DTCC’s choice of infrastructure dictates the future of financial plumbing. By selecting Digital Asset’s Canton Network, the DTCC prioritized privacy and regulatory containment over open decentralized consensus. The project targets a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the first half of 2026, allowing pre-approved counterparties to trade tokenized versions of DTC-custodied Treasuries in a “controlled production environment.”
“This collaboration creates a roadmap to bring real-world, high-value tokenization use cases to market… enabling tokenized USTs to be exchanged in near-real-time with stablecoins.” DTCC Statement.
The Retail Disconnect
The decision triggered immediate friction across crypto communities. Threads on r/solana and r/ethereum erupted with users questioning why the “biggest post-trade player” opted for a walled garden over battle-tested public L1s. The market response reflected this disconnect: RWA-proxy tokens like Ondo Finance ($0.39) failed to catch a bid on the news, reinforcing the narrative that institutional volume may remain siloed in permissioned networks rather than accruing value to public token holders.
Regulatory Safe Harbor
The technical choice is downstream of the regulatory reality. The SEC’s issuance of a no-action letter to the DTCC provides a specific, narrow exemption for this activity, contingent on the strict controls a private network like Canton offers. For now, the door to tokenizing the U.S. debt market is open, but only to those with a key to the private server.
