The use of tokenized, or digital, assets for collateral purposes is set to move beyond experimentation this year, reaching corporate treasury sooner than most CFOs expect.

Last month, the staff of the trading and markets division of the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-action letter approving, with conditions, a securities tokenization pilot proposed by the Depository Trust Company, a subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.

The letter cleared DTC to conduct a limited three-year program allowing participants to have their security entitlements to DTC-held securities recorded using distributed ledger technology, rather than exclusively through its current centralized ledger. DTC plans to launch the initiative in the second half of 2026.

The development signals “accelerating institutional adoption of blockchain for traditional assets,” according to one analysis.

Meanwhile, Nasdaq is seeking to support tokenized securities — traditional financial assets like stocks or bonds that are represented digitally on a blockchain — but plans to keep the final transfer of ownership and cash within the current DTC system. Nasdaq has already filed to enable trading of tokenized securities that still settle through DTC.

Translation: the rails that move the assets CFOs already rely on are being upgraded — and when collateral can move faster, the balance sheet will behave differently.

These projects are not shadowy experiments somewhere on the fringes of finance; they are signals that the core infrastructure of U.S. capital markets is preparing for a future where tokenized assets function as regulated collateral inside the same plumbing CFOs already rely on. And when that happens, collateral will stop sitting still.

Every CFO knows the balance sheet carries inefficiencies that are difficult to quantify but, at the same time, impossible to ignore. Treasury teams manage cash equivalents, money‑market funds, short‑duration credit, and sometimes equity exposure, all held in separate custody arrangements with different accounting rules, different liquidation logic, and different timelines for moving value. The underlying issue is not the assets themselves, but the fact that they are managed as separate silos rather than as a single, programmable collateral portfolio.

When liquidity is needed, assets must be sold. When margin is required, teams wait for settlement. When markets move quickly, the gap between wanting to act and being able to act can be measured in days. This friction rarely appears as a visible expense, but it affects return on invested capital, working‑capital efficiency, and liquidity buffers. It also limits the visibility CFOs can provide to boards on real‑time exposure and liquidity. In short, CFOs are essentially funding an inefficiency they cannot yet see.

Tokenization changes this dynamic because a tokenized Treasury bill or money‑market share is not simply a digital wrapper. It is in fact an asset that can be priced continuously, posted as collateral automatically, and moved between positions without the frustrating settlement delays that define today’s workflows. 

The shift toward this solution will ultimately impact corporate treasury departments but will not necessarily begin there. Instead, it will likely arrive through banks, custodians, and counterparties who are already preparing for collateral that moves quicker, settles faster, and reduces their own exposure. 

JPMorgan’s Tokenized Collateral Network is already converting money‑market fund shares into collateral that moves in seconds. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund is being used as institutional collateral in off‑exchange workflows. Nasdaq’s proposal would allow tokenized securities to trade while keeping settlement within the DTC system. And DTC’s 2026 authorization brings tokenization into the core of U.S. securities settlement.

When counterparties begin operating this way, they will expect the same from the corporations they transact with. And this is the point where CFOs will not be asked whether they want tokenized collateral — they will simply be asked whether they are ready for new settlement expectations.

For treasury management, the implications are direct. Capital efficiency improves when assets no longer have to sit idle because moving them is too slow or too expensive. A position in short‑duration Treasuries could simultaneously serve as working capital and post as margin for hedging positions, without requiring liquidation or duplicated buffers. In turn, the portfolio becomes more liquid, and the yield emerges as a consequence of more efficient collateral usage.

Settlement risk also shrinks as the gap between trade execution and final settlement creates counterparty exposure, and tokenized assets that settle in near‑real‑time reduce this window from days to minutes.

That reduction matters for risk management, for capital requirements tied to settlement exposure, and for the size of liquidity reserves that must be held “just in case.” Finally, treasury visibility becomes real‑time rather than retrospective.

When assets exist as tokens with continuous pricing, dashboards stop being snapshots and become live views of liquidity, exposure and collateralization. Automated rebalancing and dynamic collateral ratios become possible without the need for manual reconciliation that currently consumes treasury operations.

All of this may sound a little too complex for some, but here’s the good news: none of this requires CFOs to become blockchain experts. Instead, it merely requires them to pressure test their infrastructure.

Custody arrangements will need to support tokenized assets. ERP and treasury systems will need to ingest real‑time data. Counterparty expectations will need to be understood in advance of any issues rather than after. And CFOs will need to evaluate how much capital is currently sitting idle simply because moving it is slow, and how that changes when settlement suddenly becomes near-real-time settlement.

Quite possibly the most important point for CFOs to take heed of here is that these are not questions for the next decade — they are questions for the next budget cycle.

Larry Fink compared tokenization to the internet in 1996. While his analogy was close, it’s not entirely accurate. The early internet was about information moving faster, but tokenization is about collateral moving faster.

Most capital sits idle because moving it is expensive and slow. When that changes, CFOs gain a new category of productive capital in the form of assets that earn while they secure, and collateral that works while it waits. 

The organizations preparing for this shift now will take on the challenges of 2026 with a balance sheet advantage. Those who hesitate may not get a choice — counterparties, banks, and markets will set the new expectations for them.