Morgan Stanley among first banks to tokenize US equities, Treasurys through DTCC's service

What happened

Morgan Stanley has begun using DTCC’s new tokenization service and says it has tokenized U.S. equities and Treasurys through it. The bank is among the first users after the service launched last week; DTCC’s depository subsidiary signed 20 participants at launch.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

Using the service gives Morgan Stanley practical experience connecting tokenized securities—digital representations of financial assets—with established market systems. That experience could shape its digital-asset capabilities and, over time, how securities are handled, although the article reports no immediate change to trading, costs, or revenue.

Analyst inference

The move comes as DTCC begins onboarding institutions to shared tokenization infrastructure, with future users planned on a rolling basis. Morgan Stanley separately expects its own alternative trading system to support tokenized equities in the first quarter of 2027, later than its previous H2 2026 target.

Confirmed

What to watch

1. Whether Morgan Stanley expands the types or volume of securities it tokenizes through DTCC, since broader use would indicate the service is moving beyond initial integration. Analyst inference
2. DTCC’s planned rolling onboarding of future users and whether additional institutions begin using the service, which would show how widely the infrastructure is adopted. Confirmed
3. Progress toward Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter 2027 target for tokenized equities on its alternative trading system, including whether the timeline changes again. Confirmed

Evidence

• theblock.co