HashKey Group has joined the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s Digital Assets Advisory Services Industry Working Group, marking the first time an Asian digital asset service provider has entered the body. The group now includes more than 100 financial institutions, asset managers and digital asset firms, among them JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.

The working group examines how tokenized securities can be issued, transferred, settled and safeguarded at institutional scale while linking blockchain records to existing market infrastructure. HashKey will contribute operational and regulatory experience from Asia-Pacific markets, particularly Hong Kong.

HashKey’s Regional Experience

HashKey operates trading, asset management and onchain infrastructure businesses across regulated jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Bermuda. Since 2023 the firm has taken part in real-world asset tokenization initiatives. It is a member of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Project Ensemble Architecture Community, which studies how tokenized deposits and wholesale central bank money can support transactions in tokenized assets. HashKey also belongs to Hong Kong’s Tokenised Bond Expert Group and has supported the issuance and circulation of tokenized money-market exchange-traded funds, bonds and structured notes.

The company stated that its participation is limited to advisory discussions on standards for institutional tokenized securities. No separate commercial agreement, joint product or system integration with DTCC has been announced.

DTCC’s Tokenization Program

DTCC, the primary post-trade infrastructure provider for U.S. markets, formed the working group to guide development of a new tokenization service. Eligible participants at its subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company, will be able to create blockchain-based representations of securities already held in DTC custody. These digital versions can be transferred to approved wallets and converted between conventional and tokenized formats while the underlying securities remain within the existing custody framework.

DTC safeguards more than $114 trillion in securities. That figure refers to assets held in traditional custody, not to any volume already tokenized.

In July DTCC completed its first production-environment tokenized transactions using securities held at DTC. The tests covered equity transfers, collateral pledges, securities lending and delivery-versus-payment trades involving U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements. Transactions ran across a private blockchain based on Hyperledger Besu and the public Canton Network. Reported assets included shares of Microsoft and Circle, the Invesco QQQ Trust, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and a BlackRock Treasury ETF. JPMorgan separately completed a conversion of Invesco QQQ Trust shares that kept the underlying securities inside DTC custody while creating blockchain records of the digital representations.

In December the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-action letter to a DTCC subsidiary permitting the tokenization service. The working group remains advisory; membership confers neither operational authority over DTCC systems nor guaranteed commercial access to the finished product.

HashKey’s role will consist of providing Asia-Pacific perspectives on issuance, settlement and custody standards as the October service launch approaches.