US banking regulators clarify tokenized securities receive same capital treatment as traditional assets

US federal banking regulators confirmed that tokenized securities will receive the same capital treatment as traditional securities under existing bank capital rules, according to joint guidance from the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC. The guidance states that banks can hold tokenized securities—including those issued on permissioned or permissionless distributed ledger systems and related derivatives—without facing different or stricter capital requirements, reflecting a technology-neutral approach. RWA.xyz data show tokenized public equities have reached about $1.1 billion, while the broader tokenized real-world assets market is estimated at nearly $26 billion, as major institutions such as Franklin Templeton and BlackRock issue tokenized treasury products and crypto platforms like Robinhood, Kraken, and Gemini launch tokenized shares in Europe. The SEC has also indicated that tokenized securities will be regulated in the same way as regular securities, meaning banks must continue to hold appropriate capital while exploring strategies involving these digital assets within the existing regulatory framework.