Tokenized funds have spent years promising to modernize Wall Street plumbing. The cash that settles those trades has often still moved through a chain of intermediaries.
Securitize is trying to shorten that chain. The tokenization platform, which hosts funds from BlackRock, Apollo and KKR, said it will source the dollars used to settle trades from a federally chartered bank rather than from intermediaries.
That bank is Anchorage Digital Bank. Anchorage is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US.
What the deal actually does
The partnership was announced on October 20, 2026. Under the arrangement, Securitize can mint and redeem stablecoins directly with Anchorage.
In a tokenized trade, there are two sides. One is the asset itself, such as a token representing a share in a fund. The other is the payment, often called the “dollar leg.”
Securitize has built its business on the asset side. This deal targets the payment side, which is where intermediaries have typically sat between investors and the dollars they need.
Institutional investors on the platform can transact using stablecoins issued by a federally regulated bank. That brings closer regulatory oversight to the cash portion of each trade.
The numbers behind the plumbing
Securitize manages over $4 billion in assets from tokenized funds. That figure includes products from BlackRock, Apollo and KKR.
Anchorage’s stablecoin lineup includes USDtb and USA₮ among those offerings. USDtb had approximately $530 million in reserves as of August 31, 2026. Of those reserves, 99% are backed by BUIDL tokens.
Why tokenization needed a better cash rail
Tokenization means representing a real-world asset, like a fund share or a bond, as a token on a blockchain. The pitch is faster settlement, round-the-clock trading and fewer back-office steps.
For large institutions, not every stablecoin is equal. Who issues it, who supervises the issuer and how it is redeemed all matter to compliance teams. A bank charter brings federal supervision, specifically from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Tokenization of real-world assets is projected to reach tens of billions industry-wide.
What this means for institutions and the market
The most immediate effect is on Securitize’s own clients. Institutions buying tokenized funds on the platform may face fewer steps between their cash and their trade.
For Anchorage, the deal is a distribution win. Its stablecoins gain a direct channel into a platform hosting funds from BlackRock, Apollo and KKR.
Investors should keep the risks in view. Concentration is one: USDtb’s reserves lean heavily on a single type of backing asset, with 99% held in BUIDL tokens.
Regulatory dependence is another factor. The value of this arrangement rests largely on Anchorage’s federal charter, so any shift in how regulators treat crypto banks would ripple through.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.