A new Citi GPS report, "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain," forecasts the market for tokenized securities to reach 5.5 trillion USD by 2030, up from roughly 17 billion USD today. Depending on the pace of adoption, the range spans 2.7 to 8.2 trillion USD.
In tokenization, a security such as a stock, a bond or an ETF is represented as a digital token on a blockchain. Ownership rights, settlement and transfer then run on-chain instead of through the traditional clearing intermediaries. Citi GPS has, moreover, published such analyses since 2023; the first major report, "Money, Tokens, and Games," named up to 5 trillion USD by 2030 at the time. However, the new report raises these figures and refines the assumptions per asset class. Citi assumes that by 2030 roughly 10% of the US Treasury bill market and 3% of the roughly 62 trillion USD US equity market will be tokenized, while private credit and private equity remain niches at around 100 billion USD each.
DTCC builds clearing infrastructure for tokenized securities
Behind this forecast stands no startup vision, but rather the center of the US financial system. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) acts as the central clearing house of the United States and holds more than 114 trillion USD in securities in custody. The basis for the push is, furthermore, a no-action letter that the SEC granted the Depository Trust Company in December 2025 for a three-year tokenization pilot. As a result, the institution gains regulatory cover for a step that was previously discussed only in theory.
The timeline is concrete. Starting in July 2026, limited production trades of tokenized securities will begin first; the broader platform launch for all DTC participants follows in October 2026. Admitted initially are Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs on major indices, as well as US Treasury bills, bonds and notes. The selection shows that the platform targets liquid standard products and not experimental niches. During the transition period, old and new rails run in parallel, comparable to an electronic toll system alongside the conventional cash lane.
More than 50 firms are participating in the design, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Anchorage and Circle. Additionally, the NYSE Group and Payward, the parent company of Kraken, sit in the Industry Working Group. This participant list signals that established Wall Street treats tokenization not as a threat, but as the next generation of infrastructure. Because the clearing house settles markets in the trillions every day, its entry consequently lends the topic operational weight.
"We believe tokenization will significantly change how markets function, with new levels of liquidity, transparency and efficiency for investors." - Frank La Salla, President & CEO, DTCC
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Nasdaq and ICE position themselves as exchange infrastructure
Not only clearing is moving, but the trading venues themselves. In March 2026, the SEC approved a Nasdaq rule change that enables the trading and issuance of certain tokenized securities; the exchange had filed the application back in September 2025. Under the framework, Russell 1000 stocks, US Treasuries, as well as ETFs on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 are admitted. Tokenized and classic shares additionally share the same CUSIP number, the same ticker symbol and the same investor rights. For global distribution, Nasdaq cooperates with Kraken's xStocks platform; a framework for issuing blockchain-based shares is to follow later.
The NYSE side, by contrast, pursues a different path. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, invested in the crypto exchange OKX in March 2026, which was valued at 25 billion USD; the investment amount was not disclosed. In return, ICE receives a seat on the OKX board. The plan is for the roughly 120 million OKX accounts to gain access to ICE futures products and tokenized NYSE shares in the future, though without a fixed timeline yet. Ultimately, both approaches point in the same direction: the established exchanges do not want to leave the distribution of tokenized shares to the crypto platforms.
Citi sees tokenized securities as a 5.5 trillion market
The Citi base forecast of 5.5 trillion USD rests on traceable assumptions. Besides the assumed tokenization rate for Treasuries and equities, the bank counts on a behavioral shift in the retail segment. Specifically, if 10% of US private investors switch to new digital trading platforms, the report says demand for tokenized shares worth 2.6 trillion USD arises. Private credit and private equity, by contrast, remain clearly subordinate at around 100 billion USD each. The range from 2.7 trillion USD to 8.2 trillion USD additionally reflects how strongly the result depends on the pace of adoption.
The current growth supports the direction of the forecast. Tokenized shares rose from 375 million USD in May 2025 to 1.21 billion USD in May 2026, a gain of more than 220% in twelve months. Overall, tokenized real-world assets on-chain grew by roughly two-thirds in the current year. However, the absolute figures remain small relative to the target market, which is what makes the scale of the forecast comprehensible in the first place.
What stands out is how far apart the forecasts of the major institutions lie. McKinsey expects only 2 trillion USD by 2030, while Standard Chartered considers up to 30 trillion USD possible; BCG and Ripple estimate 18.9 trillion USD by 2033. Citi thus sits in the middle field with 5.5 trillion USD and clearly above the conservative McKinsey estimate. Notably, the difference of 28 trillion USD between the extremes shows that the industry shares the direction, yet not the pace.
Clarity Act creates regulatory framework for tokenized securities
As a third pillar alongside infrastructure and forecast, regulation is finally moving. In May 2026, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15 to 9 for the "Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025" and advanced the first comprehensive US crypto market structure bill at the Senate level. The vote ran across party lines: besides all Republican members, the Democratic senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks also voted in favor. The law creates a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, analogous to the GENIUS Act for stablecoins.
Until the final Senate vote, steps are still missing. Outstanding are the merger with the draft of the Agriculture Committee, as well as an agreement on the ethics clause regarding conflicts of interest of government officials. Regulatory clarity therefore affects demand for government bonds. For example, the stablecoin growth to 1.9 trillion USD by 2030 forecast by Citi alone could generate roughly 1 trillion USD in additional demand for US Treasuries, at an annual transaction volume of nearly 100 trillion USD. For institutional investors, tokenization thus shifts from a question of the future to a question of timing.
