In this video, the speaker explains that the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is developing a tokenized securities service that will initially cover Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. Limited production trades are slated for July 2026 with a full launch in October 2026, and Stellar is expected to connect to the DTCC’s system in the first half of 2027. The tokenization process keeps legal ownership with the DTC while allowing tokenized assets to move 24/7 on the Stellar blockchain, supporting reporting, corporate actions, and collateral use. The speaker emphasizes that XLM’s demand will not come from transaction fees—fees are minuscule (0.00001 XLM per transaction)—but from the network’s reserve requirements: each Stellar account needs a minimum of 1 XLM, plus 0.5 XLM per trustline, offer, signer, or ledger entry. He provides rough calculations showing that thousands to millions of institutional wallets could lock up hundreds of thousands to millions of XLM, depending on adoption levels. The core argument is that XLM’s value hinges on repeated institutional on‑chain activity enabled by the DTCC’s integration, not merely the $114 trillion of securities under custody.
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This kind of adoption of crypto looks quiet at first. Tokenized stocks, ETFs, and treasuries moving through the rails where XLM is used for fees, reserves, and network access. But it's bigger once you really take away the curtain. The DTCC Stellar story is not $114 trillion suddenly moving into XLM. That's the wrong way to understand it. Let's look at what's going on. The real story is that the DTCC connecting one of the largest securities machines in the world to a public blockchain that actually uses XLM underneath. The DTCC says that DTC custodies more than $114 trillion securities, and DTCC subsidiaries process $4.7 quadrillion of security transactions in 2025 alone. Now, the DTCC is building a tokenized service for assets already held at the DTC. The first eligible assets include the Russell 1000 stocks, major index ETFs, and US Treasuries. Limited production trades are planned for July 2026, and full launch is planned for October 2026. And Stellar is expected to connect in the first half of 2027. Here's what this means. A DTC participant can take a security entitlement already held at a DTC and turn it into a tokenized version on the approved blockchain. The stock or treasury does not disappear. The DTC still protects the legal ownership rights, but the tokenized asset can move 24/7 between registered participant wallets, support reporting, corporate actions, and potentially collateral. Movement. Now, this is exactly how XLM is really getting demand by this move. So everyone's talking about the fees, but Stellar's minimum fee is only 0.00001 XLM per transaction. So even 10 million DTCC-related transactions per day would only use about 100 XLM in fees. That's really small, tiny demand. The stronger demand channel is in its reserves. Every Stellar account needs at least 1 XLM to exist, plus 0.5 XLM for trust lines, offers, signers, and and other ledger entries. So if institutions, custodians, market makers, compliance apps, and tokenized security systems create 100,000 wallets with 10 ledger entries each, that could lock up roughly 600,000 XLM. At 1 million wallets, that becomes 6 million XLM locked in network reserves. That's not a price prediction, that's real adoption math. Low adoption means almost no direct XLM impact. Medium adoption means wallets Trustlines, smart contracts, and settlement apps start locking millions of XLM. If we look at high adoption, this is where the real investment case appears. We're talking about tokenized securities, stablecoins, collateral apps, and market makers all choosing Stellar because the DTCC gave an institutional legitimacy to the actual blockchain. So XLM only benefits if this turns into a repeated on-chain activity that institutions can't easily route somewhere else. So to really like make this all simple for you guys to understand, the DTCC doesn't make XLM valuable by custody value alone. It makes XLM more interesting. If Wall Street starts using Stellar as a real financial plumbing tool, that's when it gets real.
