US Regulators Align Capital Requirements for Tokenized and Traditional Securities

Tokenized securities represent shares, bonds or fund interests as tokens on a blockchain or other distributed ledger. If their legal and economic rights remain unchanged, their underlying risk is likewise unaffected by the technology used. Capital requirements directly affect the cost to banks of issuing, holding and trading these assets or accepting them as collateral, making technological neutrality a key prerequisite for their entry into mainstream finance.

On March 5, 2026, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) jointly issued guidance stating that qualifying tokenized securities are subject to the same risk weights, capital treatment and collateral haircuts as their non-tokenized counterparts. The use of a public or private blockchain generally does not alter that treatment. The document introduced neither a fixed dollar reserve requirement nor an additional capital surcharge, but the treatment does not apply to tokens with different legal rights.