officially plugging directly into blockchain rails and Wall Street's biggest utility is leading the charge while the DTCC, which oversees more than $114 trillion in assets, will connect its upcoming tokenized securities platform directly to the stellar network.
Now there is an SEC supervised pathway to deploy tokenized securities directly onto a public blockchain, and this pilot infrastructure is set to launch in 2026 will full connectivity to the stellar network officially targeted for the first.
2027 we here to break down how open networks are adapting to highly regulated compliance standards and what this means for the multi trillion dollar future of digital assets.
We're joined by Raja Chakravorti who's the chief business officer at the Stellar Development Foundation.
Roger, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me on this hot, beautiful and hot New York City.
Yeah, absolutely.
Here in New York City we're set for a heat wave, but here upstairs at the New York Stock Exchange, we have the zero has on chain summit.
And that's why you are here, but I do want to hear about the work between the stellar network and the DTCC.
We're really excited about the partnership that we have announced.
It's been really fascinating to work very closely with the DTCC.
The scale of the DTCC is just absolutely incredible.
They settle over 4 quadrillion dollars of securities transactions annually and currently custody over $100 trillion of assets.
And so the launch for their tokenization platform.
It is tremendous.
They received that no action letter in December of 2025, and I think what's been really fascinating about that is they really worked through this idea of let's get the whole kind of regulatory and compliance clarity first, and then work with organizations that are designed and built to be able to deliver the type of institutional capabilities that they need to be able to do, and that's really been a ton of the work that we've been focused on and just really excited for the impact that that's going to provide to institutions broadly.
And speaking of which, you are here at the New York.
Stock Exchange and it really does speak to how things have evolved when we're talking about the intersection of Trap 5 and DI.
But when it comes to compliance rules in this space, tell me why native compliance tools are so vital here.
Yes, I think it is frankly everything.
When you think about institutions, I think there's been a little bit of a trajectory where in the last year what you started to see was kind of like a pilot process for institutions thinking about, well, hey, look, we understand there's a new technology coming.
We think there's going to The benefits to that technology whether that be low cost, faster settlement, all of those things, but are we actually able to go ahead and do this and not effectively have to reconcile with being at odds with compliance and regulatory infrastructure.
And so what's really important, what's really furthered our DTCC partnership is this idea that we have compliance built into the stellar network.
It is native to what we do and so things that are important to institutions.
Like the ability to issue an asset, but also to freeze and claw back those assets if they get in the hands of the wrong people.
That's really, really important when you couple that with things like upcoming privacy tooling.
Those are the things that are going to matter and that's what's going to actually trigger institutions to actually get comfortable, to move on chain and feel really strongly about the idea that the assets that they sit on top of are going to be safe and secure while also benefiting from all of those benefits.
Yes, and I do want to expand on this a little bit.
So for the layperson out there who may not be as familiar with Stellar, what would you say is the competitive advantage of the architecture?
So Stellar is a blockchain that is designed for everyday financial services, and it's got the low cost, it's got the instant settlement, it's got the sub-second finality.
All of those things are, in my mind, table stakes for an institution to think about where those benefits are able to operate.
But again, those internal compliance tools, I think, are an area that we really focus.
Stellar has been around for about 22 years, and through that period of time we've had almost 59 of uptime while having the compliance architecture that gets institutions really comfortable.
So when you bring these things together with the scale at a global setting, that is, I think, the driver for folks to come and start to approach us and think about, well, if I'm going to move on chain, let me go work with somebody who is able to stand up to institutional grade infrastructure, and that's what we really focus on delivering.
And finally, before I let you go, as we head into the second half of 2026 and also beyond, there have been some lofty projections when it comes to the growth for the tokenized asset market.
But when we're talking about this Strad 5 convergence, what do you think is the next major milestone, not just for the stellar network, but also for others in the space?
Well, I think what's been phenomenal to see is not just DTCC, but The other institutions that have come on board.
Franklin Templeton has hundreds of millions of dollars of tokenized assets on Stellar.
We've seen BlackRock achieve over $2 billion in tokenized assets.
And then you have institutions like MoneyGram which almost sit on the other side of the situation where they're really focusing on the consumer at the end of the day launching stablecoins and all of those things.
And so I think the transition that we're going to see is moving from this pilot setting to real infrastructure that scales across the board and I think when you are looking at institutional assets combined with the global distribution capabilities, that's where that convergence is really going to happen and I think we are really well poised with announcements like DTCC to explode into 2027.
Well, Raja, it was great to have you here on the show this morning.
Thank you so much for joining us here at the New York Stock Exchange and thank you so much for sharing your insights.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you.
