Why Capturing the Value of Digital Assets Comes Down to One Decision
Banks face a single infrastructure decision—control of the digital asset layer—to unlock faster settlement, lower risk, and new revenue streams across collateral, deposits, and payments.
Over the past several years, more than 100 banks have worked to integrate digital assets, with a consistent goal: reducing the delay between a client’s intent and transaction execution. Digital assets now compress settlement timelines, cutting the working capital, risk, and costs that traditionally sit idle during clearance. The critical infrastructure choice for banks is the control layer, which determines approval authority, visibility, and timing for onchain transactions. Once built, this layer can support collateral pledging, deposit settlement, or card settlement by adjusting the applications layered on top.
At Sibos in Miami, the focus is on translating digital asset benefits into business outcomes: less trapped capital, reduced risk exposure, improved customer experience, and new revenue streams for banks. These benefits manifest differently depending on a bank’s role in a transaction, but the underlying decision—who controls the infrastructure—remains unchanged. On July 15, 2026, DTCC executed its first live tokenized securities trades in what it called the largest tokenization production initiative to date, involving 22 trades and 18 parties across collateral pledges, repo, equity settlement, and CCP margin workflows.
The efficiency driver is margin optimization: tokenized collateral enables real-time allocation of a single pool across venues, eliminating the need to buffer separate collateral for each. Canton, a network designed for financial institutions, supports 24/7 market access while maintaining regulatory control, with over 35 platforms and issuers connecting assets through its Digital Asset Registry. Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo platform, running on Canton, processed $7.5 trillion in repo transactions in June 2026 alone and now covers 20 of the 24 primary US repo dealers.
The push for real-time settlement extends to cash legs and payments, where digital cash removes the need for banks or brokers to fund gaps behind instantaneous customer experiences. Regional US banks like Huntington, First Horizon, M&T, KeyBank, Old National, and SouthState are live on the Cari Network, a bank-governed tokenized deposit platform, with over 30 more committed to join and another 40 in discussions, representing a combined network and pipeline exceeding $10 trillion in assets.