The Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency jointly published a guidance document on March 5, 2026, confirming that tokenized securities are subject to the same capital rules as conventional securities. The move resolves a question that had been circling US banking institutions for some time: would holding a blockchain-based version of a stock or bond cost a bank more, in regulatory capital terms, than holding the original? The answer is no.

The three agencies released the guidance in FAQ format, stating clearly that the determining factor for capital treatment is whether a tokenized asset confers the same legal rights as its traditional counterpart. The technology used to issue or transfer the asset is irrelevant. "The capital rule is technology neutral, and the technologies used to issue and transact in a security do not generally impact its capital treatment," the agencies wrote in the joint statement.

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What the guidance actually covers

The FAQ addresses three specific areas where ambiguity had persisted. First, tokenized securities that qualify under existing definitions may be counted as financial collateral, meaning banks can use them to reduce their calculated credit risk exposure under the same haircut schedules applied to non-tokenized assets. Second, derivatives that reference tokenized securities receive the same capital treatment as derivatives on conventional securities, closing a potential regulatory gap. Third, and notably, the guidance explicitly states that the rules apply without distinction based on whether a token runs on a permissioned blockchain or a permissionless blockchain (open public networks such as Ethereum). The agencies were direct on this point: "The capital rule does not provide a different treatment based on the use of permissioned or permissionless blockchains."

The agencies also made clear that regulatory clarity does not mean reduced oversight. Banks remain required to apply sound risk management practices and comply with applicable supervisory expectations when holding tokenized assets.

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The market context

The guidance arrives as institutional tokenization accelerates. According to data from RWA.xyz and Hilbert, the tokenized real-world asset market grew from approximately $6 billion in 2022 to over $30 billion in 2025. On-chain data from RWA.xyz places the market at approximately $26.25 billion as of early March 2026, up roughly 6.5 percent over the prior 30 days, with 660,754 on-chain asset holders tracked. The two figures may reflect different asset class scope or methodology; both are drawn from the same underlying data sources and together illustrate the scale and pace of growth in the sector. Ethereum holds the largest share at around 57.7 percent of the current total. Tokenized US Treasuries alone exceeded $7.3 billion in 2025 and are projected to surpass $10 billion this year. BlackRock's BUIDL fund carries roughly $2.8 billion in total value locked, while Franklin Templeton's BENJI product holds around $852 million.

The guidance also follows a broader regulatory thaw in the United States. Through 2025, the SEC withdrew enforcement actions against firms not accused of fraud, banking regulators rolled back earlier restrictions on digital asset activity, and the OCC began issuing national trust bank charters to fintech companies. Nasdaq separately filed a proposed rule change in January 2026 to allow trading of tokenized securities on its exchange.

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Implications for Africa

The permissionless blockchain provision carries particular weight in markets where public chain infrastructure is already common. In Nigeria, the Investments and Securities Act signed into law in March 2025 formally classified digital assets as securities under the SEC's authority. Lagos State is pursuing a property tokenization program targeting a residential sector valued at roughly $11 billion. Nigerian fintech firms and financial institutions working with US counterparties or accessing US-dollar-denominated tokenized products such as BlackRock's BUIDL or Franklin Templeton's BENJI now have a clearer picture of how those assets will be treated on the US bank side of any transaction.

In Kenya, the Kenya Digital Exchange, developed in partnership with Hedera Hashgraph and DeFi Technologies, is targeting a commercial launch in the second quarter of 2026 with a focus on tokenized government debt. Kenya's Capital Markets Authority and Central Bank are jointly developing fintech strategy, and the Kenya Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill (2025) establishes a dual oversight model for stablecoin and exchange regulation, adding regulatory depth to the country's developing digital asset infrastructure. US clarity on collateral haircuts and capital treatment could reduce friction for global institutional investors considering Kenyan tokenized debt products.

South Africa demonstrated retail demand for tokenized instruments as early as April 2024, when Die MOS Inisiatief, a tokenized corporate bond, raised R100 million. Some 65.5 percent of that capital came from retail investors, with an additional 24 percent from non-institutional sources. The new guidance reduces ambiguity for South African asset managers operating across borders with US institutions.

Despite these advances, the path to full implementation across the continent involves real constraints. Regulatory sandboxes, custody and settlement standards, and cross-border interoperability through mechanisms such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System remain unresolved, and those gaps will influence the pace at which institutions can act on the new US clarity.

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India: GIFT City gains the most near-term

Domestically, India's SEBI and RBI have not yet issued equivalent guidance on tokenized securities, which limits the direct domestic impact. However, the International Financial Services Centres Authority at GIFT City in Gandhinagar has been building a cross-border regulatory framework and introduced consolidated capital market governance rules in February 2026, including the "Master Key" registration framework for capital market intermediaries. Funds domiciled at GIFT City that work with US bank counterparties can now structure international tokenized products against a clearer regulatory baseline. The technology-neutral principle also validates the infrastructure choices of Indian developers building on Ethereum and Polygon for institutional clients. IFSCA also has a consultation paper in progress on tokenized real-world asset governance covering smart contracts, custodians, and settlement protocols, a forward-looking framework that signals continued regulatory development in the months ahead.

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What comes next

In early 2026, SEC staff issued a statement on tokenized securities, and the CFTC issued its own collateral guidance in late 2025. The convergence of these agency actions points toward a more complete US regulatory framework for tokenized instruments taking shape through 2026. For developers and institutions outside the United States, the Fed, FDIC, and OCC guidance now provides an international benchmark that regulators in Africa and South Asia, many of whom are still drafting their own rules, are likely to reference directly.

For developers building on public chains, the guidance carries immediate practical significance. The explicit inclusion of permissionless blockchains means that tokenized assets issued on open networks qualify for the same capital and collateral treatment as those on permissioned infrastructure. The collateral eligibility clarification also opens a pathway for tokenized Treasuries and tokenized bonds to be used as margin in DeFi-adjacent or hybrid institutional trading contexts. For technical teams building those integrations, that pathway is now grounded in formal regulatory language for the first time.