The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) plan to extend its tokenization service to Solana could draw more traditional financial institutions to the blockchain, but US regulatory restrictions may curb how much of an impact the integration ultimately has, according to analysts.

DTCC announced Thursday that it intends to connect its tokenization service to Solana in the second half of 2027. Once live, the integration would allow certain securities held by its Depository Trust Company (DTC) subsidiary — whose participants include banks and brokers — to be represented as digital tokens on the network.

Solana is a blockchain known for fast transactions and low fees, characteristics that have made it a popular venue for crypto trading, particularly memecoins. The network held roughly $4.94 billion in total value locked (TVL), a measure of assets deposited in the network's decentralized finance protocols, as of Nov. 12, according to DefiLlama.

Experts suggest the move could help Solana attract activity beyond memecoin speculation, though it remains unclear how much new capital and transaction volume the integration would actually deliver. Complicating the outlook, current US regulatory rules still restrict who is permitted to hold and transfer the tokenized assets.

Memes paved the way

Alex Lin, founding partner at venture capital firm Reforge, said Solana's track record of processing heavy memecoin trading volume may have demonstrated the network's capacity to support traditional financial activity.

"Memes were a public stress test that gave Solana credibility that it can handle retail-scale volume cheaply and reliably," Lin told Cointelegraph. "The casino paved the way for more institutional plumbing."

Usage of the new tokens may nonetheless be constrained. Under a December 2025 SEC no-action letter, a form of SEC staff guidance that permits specified activity as long as its stated conditions are met, DTC participants must register wallets in order to hold tokenized securities, and the tokens can only be transferred between registered wallets — restrictions that could limit adoption.

"It's overstated in the near term because the SEC relief from Dec 2025 keeps these tokens in a walled garden of registered DTC participants, so permissionless retail and DeFi liquidity can't touch these tokens directly yet," Lin said. "Regulators need to let these assets work as true onchain collateral and that's more policy than tech."

DTCC launched its tokenization service on the Canton Network and its private Besu network on Oct. 28, enabling certain securities to be converted into digital tokens while maintaining existing investor protections. At launch, the company said 20 DTC participants had signed agreements to access the service, but it has not disclosed whether any of them intend to use Solana. Cointelegraph contacted DTCC and the Solana Foundation for additional comment but has not yet received a response.

Related: Robinhood's Tenev warns US tokenization uncertainty deters 'serious assets'

Solana trading slows, but tokenized assets grow

Kha Nguyen, CEO and co-founder of blockchain analytics platform Birdeye, which tracks trading activity on Solana, said the blockchain has already registered growing demand for tokenized stocks without any involvement from DTCC.

According to Birdeye's H1 2026 report, tokenized-stock trading volume on Solana reached roughly $4.9 billion in the first half of the year — more than six times the volume recorded over the previous six months. The firm's third-quarter report also found that more than 1 million accounts held tokenized stocks on Solana by late September.

Broader trading activity on the network, however, has cooled. Solana recorded approximately 6.9 billion transactions in the 30 days ending Nov. 11, down almost 40% from the preceding 30-day period, according to Token Terminal data. Trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) fell 34.4% to $39.1 billion over the same stretch, while monthly active addresses dropped nearly 13% to 45.8 million. Network fees declined 39% to about $17 million.

Even so, the value of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) — traditional assets represented as tokens on a blockchain — climbed almost 7% to $4.76 billion as of Nov. 11, up from $4.46 billion on Oct. 12.

"By late September more than a million wallets had held a tokenized stock, and real-world assets on Solana had grown five times in a year," Nguyen told Cointelegraph.

Nguyen cautioned that bringing more tokenized securities onto the network does not automatically translate into more transactions or greater demand for Solana's native cryptocurrency, SOL.

"A trade is one transaction whether it moves $100 or $100 million," Nguyen said. "What matters is turnover, not value parked on-chain."

What could happen next?

Nguyen said DTCC's integration would require backing from banks and other financial firms to meaningfully affect Solana, and institutions would also need sufficient liquidity to support large trades.

"Banks, brokers and issuers need to say they will issue, trade and settle there, and then do it," Nguyen said. He added that institutions would need to actively use the tokenized securities rather than merely hold them.

"The assets must be active, not idle: traded around the clock, used as collateral to borrow against, and earning yield," Nguyen said.

Lin agreed that the longer-term impact would hinge on how the assets are used rather than which blockchain they are issued on.

"No one cares where the assets are issued, but more so where they're used," Lin said. "It's all about where secondary trading and collateral activity will happen and ultimately settle."

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