July 15, 2023
Dear Ms. Countryman,
It should not be possible for the DTCC or any other financial institution or market participant to create tokenized securities out of thin air or use such digitally created and provided tokens instead of the actual securities as locates for Fails to Deliver (FTDs).
The creation and provision of tokenized securities out of thin air disrupts the price discovery mechanism that is a crucial foundation to fair financial markets.
If it isn't illegal to create tokens of stocks and securities and utilize those tokens instead of the stocks and securities proper because the stocks and securities are hard to get for certain market participants such as short hedge funds, this practice should definitely be made illegal.
This practice of using tokenized securities creates the false impression that a higher number of securities are available on the market than actually are.
Sincerely,
Elfriede Leland-Popperwhoppper