For decades, central securities depositories (CSDs) have served as the “golden record” of capital markets: the final ledger of ownership and settlement. Tokenisation challenges that role. When assets become smart contracts, the ledger is no longer just a database: it is executable code.

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The common refrain that blockchain signals the “death of the CSD” misses the point. In a tokenised market, the asset itself embeds logic for compliance, settlement and corporate actions. The CSD’s role therefore shifts from custodian of records to guarantor of code. Its core function becomes certifying that the program governing an asset is secure, compliant and behaves as intended throughout its lifecycle.

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This evolution carries a strategic imperative. CSDs cannot afford closed, proprietary infrastructures. Assets already span public and private blockchains, and liquidity depends on interoperability. Survival lies in omnipresence: connecting across chains, providing institutional-grade controls, and acting as a trusted interface between fragmented systems.

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Industry signals are converging on this view. Recent work by Euroclear, DTCC and Clearstream underscores that in programmable markets, security, controls and interoperability matter more than ownership of the ledger itself. The compliance layer becomes the new clearing layer.

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The future, then, is not the “CSD as ledger” but the CSD as a service, a technical trust layer that secures the logic of digital assets rather than merely recording their existence.

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