Clearstream’s €20 trillion tokenization roadmap starts with digitized eurobonds

Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream and Euroclear have collaborated on a data standard to digitize the €14 trillion eurobond market, targeting digital issuance from Q1 2026. While this first step involves digitization rather than tokenization, it represents just the first step in a far more ambitious transformation that could reshape how the entire €20 trillion in assets on Clearstream’s platform are traded and settled.

The two international central securities depositories (ICSDs) yesterday published their jointly developed Issuance & Processing Taxonomy (IPT), with plans for a DLT-focused extension. However, the real story lies in what this infrastructure enables next: full tokenization of traditional securities and settlement involving stablecoins and wholesale CBDCs.

In a recent Ledger Insights interview, Clearstream’s Jens Hachmeister outlined how the firm plans to become “tokenized securities ready, stablecoin ready, wholesale CBDC and crypto ready” – a multi-year roadmap that starts with dematerialized securities such as eurobonds but aims to support tokenized markets at scale.

Hachmeister’s vision addresses critical questions facing the industry: which asset classes work best for tokenization, why Clearstream moved away from smart contracts for some solutions, and how stablecoins could bridge the settlement gap until wholesale CBDCs arrive.