Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) will integrate Chainlink’s unified data standard into its infrastructure to expand tokenized collateral management capabilities.
DTCC, the world’s largest post-trade infrastructure operator, announced a partnership with Chainlink aimed at enabling collateral management across both traditional financial markets and blockchains in near real-time.
The company will integrate Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) infrastructure and Chainlink’s unified data standard into its Collateral AppChain network, a platform designed to manage collateral for securities, derivatives, and repo transactions. The project aims to transition collateral movement to a 24/7 operating model while reducing delays in asset transfers between market participants. The platform is expected to launch in Q4 2026.
The new system will automatically synchronize asset pricing, collateral valuation, margin requirements, and fund movements almost in real time. According to DTCC, the platform is intended to serve as shared infrastructure for banks, brokers, custodians, tri-party agents, and clearing organizations.
Nadine Chakar, Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets, stated that distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenization could significantly improve collateral mobility and capital efficiency. According to her, the integration with Chainlink will create a unified on-chain environment for transmitting data related to asset pricing, collateral valuation, and collateral agreement parameters.
Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov described collateral management as “the killer app that traditional finance has been waiting for.” According to him, CRE will enable the secure automation of collateral valuation, margin calculations, collateral optimization, and post-trade operations.
The DTCC initiative comes amid rapidly growing institutional interest in collateral tokenization. According to research conducted by Nasdaq and ValueExchange, more than half of global financial firms expect to begin working with tokenized collateral by the end of 2026.
The study found that the average financial institution currently manages approximately $74 billion in collateral, with roughly 25% of that amount effectively locked due to operational delays, reserve requirements, and inefficient processes. Analysts estimate that major banks could generate up to an additional $346 million annually through more efficient collateral utilization enabled by tokenization.
The report also highlighted manual processing as one of the key weaknesses of the current system. More than 70% of market participants reportedly experience daily issues related to collateral transfers and settlement reconciliation. Tokenization is expected to:
- reduce failed trades by approximately 13%;
- lower operational costs by nearly 12%;
- decrease excess collateral reserves by 11.6%.
At the same time, regulators in the United States and Europe are adapting financial infrastructure to accommodate tokenized assets:
- The European Central Bank (ECB) planned to begin accepting tokenized securities as collateral starting in March 2026.
- In December 2025, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved the use of digital assets as margin collateral for futures brokerage clients in the United States.
DTCC previously introduced Collateral AppChain as part of its Great Collateral Experiment initiative. Moreover, throughout 2025, Standard Chartered and OKX, with support from Franklin Templeton and Brevan Howard, worked on solutions enabling institutional firms to use digital assets and tokenized money market funds as collateral for over-the-counter trading.
