The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the world’s largest securities settlement system, completed a pilot project with blockchain oracle Chainlink (LINK) and several major US financial institutions, aiming to help accelerate the tokenization of funds, according to a report published Thursday by DTCC.
The goal of the project called Smart NAV was to establish a standardized process to bring and distribute data on the net asset value (NAV) of funds across virtually any private or public blockchain using Chainlink’s interoperability protocol CCIP. Market participants included American Century Investments, BNY Mellon, Edward Jones, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, JPMorgan, MFS Investment Management, Mid Atlantic Trust, State Street and US Bank.
By completing the pilot, DTCC discovered that by delivering structured data on-chain and creating standard roles and processes, fundamental data could be embedded into a wide range of on-chain use cases, such as tokenized funds and smart contracts for ‘bulk consumers’ . These are contracts that contain data for multiple funds,” the report said.
Read more: Why asset tokenization is inevitable
The pilot took place as tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), such as bonds, funds and other traditional investments, has become one of the most popular use cases for blockchain technology. Several financial heavyweights such as BlackRock, Citi and HSBC have thrown their hat into the ring, pursuing benefits such as operational efficiency, faster settlements and greater transparency compared to using traditional financial plumbing.