Power Collateral Management with Digital Assets

The Challenge

Collateral management is increasingly challenging due to a fragmented market infrastructure, inventory trapped by region and product, lengthy settlement cycles, and both a growing regulatory burden and cost basis. As regulatory requirements tighten and margin obligations increase, investors seek greater collateral mobility to unlock trapped assets and optimize their use across counterparties and time zones.

Our Solution

DTCC’s Collateral AppChain provides a solution that enables financial institutions to tokenize assets using any tokenization capability. Furthermore, the Collateral AppChain enables the utilization of assets issued on any network, whether public or private, while maintaining seamless integration with traditional market infrastructure.

The Great Collateral Experiment - Watch Now | DTCC Digital Assets

Exploring the Great Collateral Experiment

Innovation is reshaping how global collateral markets operate. The Great Collateral Experiment demonstrated how digital assets, blockchain, and tokenization can support more efficient, scalable market infrastructure. One year on, its impact continues to inform discussions around collateral mobility and the evolution of digital financial markets. Discover what's next.

EXPLORE Q&As

Defining Tokenized Collateral

The Great Collateral Experiment showed how streamlined collateral flows across siloed infrastructures can improve capital and operational efficiency, signaling the future of digital market infrastructure.

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Shifting Market Conversations

One year later, the Great Collateral Experiment remains an important proof point, demonstrating how blockchain and tokenization can support collateral workflows at the scale and rigor financial markets demand.

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Benefits

Instant Settlement

Enables 24/7 real-time settlement, reducing counterparty risk and strengthening security across all operations

Real-Time Liquidity Access

Unlocks full inventory financing instantly, driving smarter capital allocation, enhanced transparency, and greater operational agility

Automated Operations

Streamlines workflows through customizable end-to-end automation that improves performance and elevates user experience

Unified Data

Delivers real-time access to integrated data with built-in privacy, security and compliance, tailored for enterprise governance

Built-In Resilience

Maintains continuity in volatile markets with advanced security protocols and problem isolation for maximum operational resilience

Lower Costs

Consolidates functionality into a single platform, enabling higher throughput, optimized capital use, and reduced transaction costs

The Future of Collateral Is Here — Watch It in Action

Event Replay: Collateral Infrastructure for Tokenized Capital Markets

Hear from DTCC and industry leaders as they share insights from the Collateral Infrastructure for Tokenized Capital Markets white paper, and discuss the rationale behind the Collateral AppChain business case template and the key challenges it aims to address.

One Year Later: DTCC's Great Collateral Experiment

One year after the Great Collateral Experiment, Tom Sullivan and Joe Spiro reflect on how it helped move on-chain collateral management from concept toward tangible progress. With DTC's tokenization service and DTCC's Collateral AppChain advancing toward launch this year, they discuss the market demand, regulatory tailwinds, and multi-chain future supporting production-oriented use cases at scale.

DTCC Digital Assets - The Great Collateral Experiment Video Thumbnail

Laying the Rails for Digital Market Structure

The Great Collateral Experiment brought real-world complexity into a digital framework—executing intraday repo with tokenized Japanese Government Bonds and wrapped Bitcoin, automating liquidity via smart contracts, and enabling cross-central counterparty transfers. The result: a blueprint for interoperable, production-ready financial infrastructure.

Digital Infrastructure for a More Agile Financial System

Our Great Collateral Experiment showcased how blockchain technology can redefine collateral management during market stress. By simulating real-world events like a Gilt market collapse and a counterparty default, the live showcase demonstrated the power of tokenized assets, real-time collateral mobility, and smart contract automation. It also underscored the strength of our Collateral AppChain in enabling scale, privacy, and interoperability—paving the way for a more resilient and efficient financial system.

Transforming Collateral Operations with Smart Contracts

In traditional finance, coupon payments on pledged collateral are slow, error-prone, and operationally costly. In The Great Collateral Experiment, we showed how smart contracts eliminate that friction—automatically identifying the beneficial owner and routing digital cash instantly.
Corporate actions that once took weeks can now be executed in seconds, with full transparency and zero manual intervention. This is more than efficiency. It's a new foundation for capital markets.

Reducing Risk, Releasing Capital with Smart Contracts for a Competitive Edge

The Paris use case from The Great Collateral Experiment demonstrates how on-chain agreements can automate roles, eligibility, and pricing, eliminating legacy friction.
Our Collateral AppChain enables real-time asset reallocation across agreements and custodians, reduces reliance on costly transactions, frees up capital, and unlocks new revenue opportunities.

Collateral Innovation: Establishing a New Blueprint for Financial Interoperability

In the second deep dive of The Great Collateral Experiment, Dan Doney and Joe Spiro explore the collateral management innovations piloted in Tokyo. This phase focused on a crypto derivatives trade that integrated public and private equities, debt, crypto, and cash across diverse markets and tokenization standards. Notably, while the contract was crypto-native, it was collateralized using USDC, a digital proxy for traditional cash, demonstrating the system's interoperability, automation, and readiness for institutional finance.

Reimagining Collateral Management: A Deep Dive into DTCC's Blockchain Breakthroughs

Dan Doney, Chief Technology Officer at DTCC Digital Assets, and Joe Spiro, Product Director unpack the real-world breakthroughs behind DTCC Digital Assets' Great Collateral Experiment. From instant settlement using tokenized U.S. Treasuries to cross-border asset mobility and smart contract automation, they reveal how blockchain is transforming global collateral management.

Inside The Great Collateral Experiment - Accelerating Adoption of Digital Technologies

On April 23, 2025, DTCC and industry leaders showcased how digital innovation is transforming the movement, management, and financing of collateral from real-world assets to crypto. Watch the replay to see how distributed ledger technology is reshaping the future of finance.