HashKey has joined the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s digital-assets industry working group, becoming its first Asian digital-asset service provider, according to the company.
The Hong Kong-based group announced the move on September 2. It joins more than 100 banks, asset managers, exchanges, custodians, and digital-asset companies helping DTCC develop institutional infrastructure for tokenized securities.
Participants include JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, Franklin Templeton, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Robinhood.
HashKey said it will contribute experience from regulated tokenization projects in Hong Kong and other Asia-Pacific markets. Its membership does not mean the company will operate DTCC’s tokenization service. The working group provides feedback, tests workflows, and helps align industry practices as DTCC prepares to launch the service.
Why DTCC’s Working Group Matters
DTCC provides infrastructure used to clear, settle, and service securities in the United States. Its subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company, or DTC, held securities valued at more than $114 trillion in 2025, giving its tokenization plans significance beyond another blockchain experiment.
The working group brings together companies from traditional and digital finance to examine how tokenized securities can work with existing market systems. Its discussions cover ownership records, investor rights, custody, settlement, collateral, compliance controls, and interoperability between blockchains.
Creating a token that represents a security is only one part of that process. Institutions must also establish who legally owns the asset, how it can be transferred, how corporate actions will be handled, and whether it can move between digital and traditional markets without creating conflicting records.
DTCC says securities tokenized through its service will retain the same legal and economic rights as their traditional counterparts. The traditional security and its tokenized representation will share the same CUSIP, allowing the asset to move between conventional and blockchain-based systems while remaining tied to the same underlying security.
HashKey Joins as DTCC Moves Toward Launch
HashKey is entering the working group after DTCC has already moved from planning into production transactions. A wider launch is scheduled for October.
| Date | Milestone |
| December 2025 | DTC received SEC clearance for its tokenization service |
| July 15, 2026 | DTCC processed production transactions using tokenized securities |
| September 2, 2026 | HashKey joined as the group’s first Asian digital-asset service provider |
| October 2026 | DTCC plans to launch its standardized tokenization service |
Table 1. DTCC’s Path From Tokenization Planning to Launch
The timeline puts HashKey’s membership in context. The group is no longer advising DTCC on a purely experimental project. Its work now relates to infrastructure that has processed production transactions and is approaching a planned commercial launch.
DTCC Has Processed Tokenized Production Trades
On July 15, DTCC converted DTC-held securities into tokens and used them in production transactions involving more than 30 firms.
The transactions included collateral pledging, securities lending, U.S. Treasury repo delivery-versus-payment trades, equity transfers, and central counterparty margin workflows. They were processed across DTCC’s private network, built using Hyperledger Besu, and the public Canton Network.
Unlike a demonstration involving test assets, the transactions used tokenized representations of securities held at DTC and were processed in a production environment.
DTCC plans to let eligible securities move between traditional and tokenized forms. It is also building compliance controls into the tokens, including the ability to mint, burn, pause, freeze, force transfers, and recover assets.
The October launch will test whether institutions use these capabilities regularly or whether activity remains limited to controlled transactions among participating firms.
What HashKey Brings From Asia
HashKey operates across transaction services, asset management, and onchain infrastructure, with businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Bermuda.
Since 2023, it has participated in tokenization programs including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Project Ensemble Architecture Community and the Tokenised Bond Expert Group. It has also supported tokenized money-market exchange-traded funds, bonds, and notes.
In August, HashKey Exchange and Franklin Templeton announced an initiative to bring an onchain U.S. government money-market fund to Asian markets. That project gives HashKey experience with the same questions DTCC is considering, including distribution, custody, regulatory controls, and access to tokenized traditional assets.
Its inclusion gives the working group direct input from one of Asia’s most closely regulated digital-asset markets. It could help DTCC consider how its infrastructure may interact with rules and operating practices outside the United States.
However, joining the group does not guarantee HashKey a commercial role in DTCC’s service. The announcement did not say whether HashKey will join future production transactions, integrate its platforms with DTCC, or hold decision-making authority over the service.
What This Signals for Institutional Tokenization
DTCC’s approach shows institutional tokenization moving away from isolated pilots and toward systems connected to existing securities infrastructure.
The difficult part is no longer placing a representation of a security onchain. It is preserving ownership rights, compliance controls, liquidity, reference data, and settlement processes as the asset moves between blockchains and traditional systems.
For readers following how the Clarity Act and related frameworks could affect tokenized assets, HashKey’s membership also shows that infrastructure development is becoming more international. Asian firms are contributing operating experience while these systems are still being designed.
What Comes Next
DTCC’s October launch is the next milestone. It should provide more detail about which assets, participants, and blockchain networks will be supported.
HashKey’s role also remains worth watching. Future integrations or production transactions would show whether its membership develops into a deeper connection between DTCC and regulated Asian digital-asset markets.
The story is worth following alongside broader crypto news as post-trade infrastructure providers move from testing tokenized securities toward operating services.
What this means for you: HashKey’s membership does not immediately create a new tokenized product. Its importance lies in bringing Asian regulatory and operational experience into the development of infrastructure that could shape how tokenized securities move through global custody, collateral, and settlement systems.
This is not financial advice. DTCC’s service remains under development, and participation in a working group does not guarantee that proposed standards or integrations will launch as described.
