Key Takeaways
- Tokenization’s real value comes from infrastructure, not just digitizing assets.
- Interoperability and risk management are essential to scaling tokenized markets responsibly.
- Tokenization should modernize market functions, not replace the safeguards markets rely on today.
As digital and traditional financial markets continue to converge, tokenization is moving from concept to capability. At SIFMA Ops 2026, I shared how I believe tokenization must evolve if it is to meaningfully transform capital markets during the Tokenization & Digital Assets – The Next Wave of Financial Services Transformation panel discussion.
Much of the public conversation around tokenization focuses on innovation at the asset level. That innovation is important. But the real conversation needs to center on infrastructure, interoperability and risk management. Tokenization is not about replacing the financial system. It is about evolving it, responsibly, at scale, and in a way that preserves the strengths of today’s markets while unlocking new capabilities.
Click here to learn more about how DTCC is Transforming Finance Through Secure Tokenization
Tokenization Is More Than a Technical Upgrade
Tokenization introduces capabilities such as 24x7 asset mobility, embedded programmability through smart contracts and composability across workflows and services. These features open the door to new settlement models, more efficient collateral usage and greater capital efficiency.
But technology alone is not the full story. Many of these capabilities could theoretically be replicated in traditional systems with enough investment. What truly differentiates tokenization is the ecosystem it enables.
Read More: Tokenization Moves from Theory to Reality
In a tokenized environment, the infrastructure used to move securities can also support the movement of cash, collateral and related data across market participants and financial market infrastructures. That shared foundation creates the conditions for interoperability, which is a core pillar of DTCC’s digital asset strategy.
Infrastructure Is the Source of Real Value
Scale and resiliency are built deliberately into market infrastructure over time. Tokenization must strengthen these attributes, not erode them. This perspective differs from narratives that suggest intermediaries will simply disappear in a tokenized world. As was noted during the panel, multilateral netting, settlement finality and legal novation do not vanish when assets move on chain. They become programmable, not optional. Infrastructure still matters, and in many ways, it matters more.
Learn more: DTCC Advances Development of New Tokenization Service
Closing the 24x7 Risk Gap
As futures markets move toward 24x7 trading and crypto markets already operate continuously, traditional assets and collateral largely remain constrained by market hours. That creates a growing disconnect.
If positions can be established at any time, but margin and collateral cannot be adjusted until markets reopen, systemic exposure increases. I view tokenization as a potential solution rather than a complication. When applied thoughtfully, tokenization can help markets adapt to evolving trading patterns without compromising stability.
By enabling assets to move, be pledged, and be managed continuously, tokenized infrastructure could better align risk management with modern trading behavior.
Interoperability Over Fragmentation
Multiple blockchains, token standards and regulatory regimes could easily recreate the silos that market infrastructure has spent decades working to eliminate.
Learn Why Blockchain Does Not Eliminate Intermediaries
If digital cash is treated as a regulated stablecoin in one market, a cash equivalent in another and a fund in a third, interoperability breaks down. That fragmentation would significantly limit the ability of tokenized assets to move seamlessly across markets and infrastructures, undercutting many of their promised benefits. Progress will depend on sustained dialogue between traditional market participants, crypto‑native firms, and regulators. Alignment, not fragmentation, will unlock scale.
Asset Servicing Still Matters, Perhaps More Than Ever
Tokenization does not eliminate asset servicing. Corporate actions, tax processing, identity, compliance, and reporting all remain essential to how markets function.
Tokenization creates an opportunity to build and automate many of these activities directly into the asset itself, rather than requiring each market participant to support them independently across fragmented systems. When designed this way, servicing becomes more consistent, more efficient and easier to scale. In other words, tokenization does not remove the need for servicing. It creates the potential to modernize how servicing is delivered, while preserving the controls and governance the market depends on.
Learn What Tokenized Collateral Really Means for Markets
Servicing must evolve alongside issuance and settlement to enable true straight‑through processing across the asset lifecycle. Without that alignment, manual handoffs and redundant processes introduce friction, increase error risk and drive unnecessary cost at the moments that matter most. That is why our work exploring tokenized deposits, payment stablecoins and other digital cash models is so important. When securities and cash move in lockstep, markets can reduce rework, improve resiliency and deliver genuine end‑to‑end efficiency.
A Measured Path Forward
The opportunity in tokenization is real and significant, particularly around interoperability across financial market infrastructures. But realizing that opportunity depends on regulatory alignment, resilient infrastructure and continued collaboration across the industry.
Tokenization is not a race to replace the existing system. It is a multiyear effort to modernize it responsibly, while extending its reach to new asset classes, new market participants, and new generations of investors. That is the path we are focused on at DTCC.