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(Kitco News) - The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a U.S.-based post-trade financial services company that provides clearing and settlement services to the financial markets, has announced that it’s moving into the digital asset arena with the acquisition of Securrency, a leading developer of institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure.

According to the announcement from the DTCC, the acquisition “will position DTCC to provide global leadership in bridging best-in-class industry practices with advanced digital technology to encourage acceptance and adoption of digital assets.”

Once the process is finalized over the next several weeks, Securrency will become a fully-owned subsidiary of DTCC and will operate under the name DTCC Digital Assets. Nadine Chakar, the CEO of Securrency, will join DTCC as managing director and global head of DTCC Digital Assets, and will also join the DTCC Management Committee.

The addition of Securrency’s tech stack to the DTCC’s existing digital capabilities will allow the settlement provider to fast-track the development of its enterprise digital asset platform to unlock the power of institutional DeFi, the release said.

“Securrency is an important strategic acquisition that will give us the technology to drive market-wide transformation by enabling end-to-end digital lifecycle processing for tokenized assets, digital currencies, and other financial instruments,” said Frank La Salla, president, CEO, and director of the DTCC. “By bringing together DTCC’s commitment to providing market stability and our unparalleled network of financial market participants with the sophistication of the Securrency technology, we will be in a leading position to unlock the value of digital assets and help guide the industry through its digital transformation journey.”

La Salla said the integration of the “next generation of financial market infrastructure will further reduce settlement times, facilitate market transparency and risk management, enhance regulatory oversight and controls, and unlock efficiency and innovation to create an improved investor experience.”

The firm plans to integrate blockchain technology over time, allowing them “to embed digital assets within its existing products and services, develop new, regulatory-compliant blockchain-based offerings and explore use cases with the industry, including buy-side asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, to collaborate on new DTCC blockchain-based solutions,” the release said.

The DTCC also plans to license out the Securrency technology and offer professional services as a way to help direct the development of a global digital infrastructure.

This will give interested firms the ability to leverage blockchain technology to “transform and evolve their operating models and to create innovative, new digital asset services alone or in collaboration with other market participants,” they said.

Asset manager and exchange-traded product (ETP) provider WisdomTree currently uses Securrency’s software as part of the infrastructure for its WisdomTree Prime offering that provides tokenized assets and funds via digital wallets for retail investors and consumers.

“As we join forces with DTCC, we are excited to bring together DTCC’s infrastructure capabilities with Securrency’s technology to embrace a future where the digitization of capital markets is at the forefront of innovation,” said Chakar. “These capabilities will allow DTCC to partner with the industry to build a resilient and scalable infrastructure critical to the mass adoption of digital assets. Together, we will unlock opportunities to reimagine compliance, liquidity, efficiency, and interoperability in trading real-world assets on the blockchain.”

The DTCC plans to use Securrency’s technology to help foster industry-wide collaboration in an effort to avoid fragmentation with different digital technologies and standards. “Securrency’s technology can address this issue by acting as a DLT-agnostic harmonization layer that promotes interoperability, liquidity, transparency, and security,” they said.

The overarching goal of the DTCC’s digital asset strategy is to establish a digital infrastructure that will allow them to extend their core services to the digital asset ecosystem and “deliver no-touch, end-to-end processing.”

Its strategic priorities include “Exploring the development of digital products and services to address gaps in market infrastructure or that optimize the end-to-end lifecycle; Establishing a control framework for digital asset securities; Executing client-driven pilots aligned to the firm’s core capabilities and services; and Advancing industry-wide dialogue on interoperability to inform future connectivity models,” the release said.

“We look forward to building on our past work to drive consensus around the standards, controls, and frameworks necessary to support regulatory-compliant digital asset solutions and development of the right architecture and infrastructure to ensure widespread interoperability,” La Salla said. “We’re excited to welcome our new colleagues to the DTCC team and to begin collaborating as a group to strengthen market stability and resilience and drive greater efficiencies, productivity, risk mitigation, and liquidity in the global financial markets.”