Nasdaq Study Finds Tokenised Collateral Poised for Takeoff With $4.8 Billion Potential

A joint research report published by Nasdaq and market intelligence firm The ValueExchange has found that the tokenisation of collateral assets is on the cusp of mainstream institutional adoption, with more than half of surveyed firms planning to run live tokenised collateral programmes within the current calendar year. The report, titled "Making the Case for Tokenised Collateral", surveyed 203 market participants globally, covering investment banks, custodians, prime brokers, asset managers, and central counterparty clearing houses [1].

A System Haemorrhaging Efficiency

The report's opening diagnosis is stark. Settlement matching and delivery failures are daily events for 70% of respondents. Rather than addressing the root cause, firms have built defensive workarounds that lock up capital unnecessarily: 35% of respondents post more than half their collateral overnight to ensure timely delivery the following day. On average, institutions maintain approximately 7% excess collateral as a precautionary buffer against potential settlement failures [1].

The cumulative cost of these practices is substantial. Roughly 25% of all posted collateral generates no yield at any given time. For Tier 1 firms, defined in the study as those with more than $100 billion in assets under management, this translates into approximately $36.8 billion in non-remunerated collateral sitting idle across the system [1].

The $4.8 Billion Opportunity

Tokenisation, the study argues, can directly address this inefficiency by enabling atomic settlement and real-time collateral mobility that current settlement infrastructure cannot support. According to the report's modelling, tokenisation can mobilise $4.8 billion of the non-remunerated collateral currently held by Tier 1 firms, converting idle assets into yield-bearing positions. The resulting increase in annual interest earnings across the affected institutions is estimated at $346 million [1].

The operational benefits documented in the study extend across the entire collateral management lifecycle:

Metric	Estimated Improvement from Tokenisation
Non-remunerated collateral mobilised	US$4.8 billion (Tier 1 firms)
Additional annual interest earned	US$346 million
Reduction in operating costs	12% (fewer exceptions, less manual intervention)
Reduction in collateral buffering requirements	11.6%
Reduction in risk-weighted asset costs	8.1%
Reduction in overnight funding costs	7.8%
Improvement in overall collateral optimisation	3.2%

Source: Nasdaq/The ValueExchange, "Making the Case for Tokenised Collateral" [1]

Adoption Is Accelerating, But Not Overnight

Despite the compelling efficiency case, the path to full adoption involves a transition period that should not be underestimated. Daniel Upbin, vice president of ETD Clearing Strategy and Solutions at Nasdaq, cautioned in his commentary on the study that tokenisation is not an overnight transformation. He identified four structural constraints on institutional adoption [1].

First, managing dual infrastructure is operationally complex. Institutions must run traditional and tokenised asset workflows in parallel during the transition, doubling certain operational burdens before the efficiency gains from full migration are realised. Second, legal ambiguity and the absence of consistent risk models create capital and risk management challenges, as prudential frameworks have not yet been uniformly updated to reflect tokenised assets. Third, fragmented liquidity across different blockchain networks and tokenisation platforms limits the depth available for large-scale collateral movements. Fourth, the expectation of 24-hour, seven-day operational capability in tokenised markets sits in tension with the staffing and infrastructure models of most traditional institutions, which were built for business-hours operations [1].

The CSD Imperative

The report's conclusions converge on a principle with significant infrastructure implications. Gerard Smith, vice president and head of Post Trade Product Strategy, stated in his commentary that the scaling of tokenised collateral depends entirely on tokens representing the actual underlying security, not a synthetic derivative or a claim on a pool:

"A CSD-issued asset with full legal equivalence is existential to tokenisation."

Smith identified three priorities for central securities depositories (CSDs) that follow from this principle. First, CSDs must establish digital issuance frameworks that preserve the legal finality of settlement. Second, they must build cross-chain connectivity without fragmenting the identity of the underlying asset, a technically demanding requirement given the proliferation of competing blockchain networks. Third, they must develop operational frameworks capable of servicing both traditional and digital workflows under a unified set of rules [1].

Why 2026 Is the Inflection Year

The 52% adoption figure projected by end 2026 reflects genuine momentum rather than speculative optimism. The GENIUS Act in the United States and parallel regulatory frameworks in Europe and Asia have clarified the legal status of tokenised instruments sufficiently to allow institutional legal teams to green-light pilots. Several major custodians and prime brokers have already completed bilateral tokenised collateral transactions within sandbox environments, and at least one major CSD has announced a digital issuance framework for 2026 [1].

For collateral managers and treasury teams, the study's message is that the cost of inaction is no longer negligible. Firms that delay full engagement with tokenised collateral infrastructure risk falling behind competitors who are capturing the 12% operating cost reduction and the $346 million in aggregate interest that the sector stands to unlock.