The structural use of wood in North America is dominated by light wood-frame construction used in low-rise and – more recently – mid-rise residential buildings. Mass timber engineered wood products such as laminatedveneer-lumber and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels enable to use the material in tall and large wood and woodbased hybrid buildings. The prospect of constructing taller buildings creates challenges, one of them being the increasein lateral forces created by winds and earthquakes, thus requiring stronger hold-down devices. This paper summarises the experimental investigation on the performance a high-capacity hold-down for resisting seismic loads in tall timberbased structural systems. The connection consists of the Holz-Stahl-Komposit-System (HSK)™ glued into CLT with the modification that ductile steel yielding was allowed to occur inside the CLT panel. The strength, stiffness, ductility and failure mechanisms of this connection were evaluated under quasi-static monotonic and reversed cyclic loading. The results demonstrate that the modified hold-down-assembly provides a possible solution for use in tall timber-based structures in high seismic zones.