Grayscale is positioning Chainlink as critical infrastructure for the growing tokenized asset market, according to a new research report.
The asset manager’s research arm claims that Chainlink’s suite of services, spanning real-world data, compliance tools and blockchain interoperability, solves many of the real-world frictions blocking wider adoption of blockchain-based finance.
Chainlink is best known for operating “oracles” that provide off-chain data such as asset prices to smart contracts. But its newer offerings go much further. The Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), for example, allows tokens and messages to move between chains, something that came into focus during a test with JP Morgan’s Kinexys and Ondo Finance.
Grayscale sees Chainlink’s LINK token as a diversified exposure to crypto’s infrastructure layer, according to the report. “Chainlink is the critical connective tissue between crypto and traditional finance,” the report read. “It can already be considered essential infrastructure in blockchain-based finance.”
The report pegs the tokenization market at $35 billion today, still a fraction of the global asset base, but notes that Chainlink’s integration with firms such as S&P Global and FTSE Russell puts it in a strong position as traditional markets explore on-chain solutions.
Currently, Grayscale added, the total market for tokenized assets represents only 0.01% of the total value of global fixed income and equity securities. The growth in the market for tokenized assets, the firm added, could “indicate growth” in demand for Chainlink’s offerings.
While still small compared to global capital markets, the firm expects the number to grow as banks, asset managers and data providers explore blockchain rails. It has already grown from around $5 billion in early 2023 to the current figure.
The report comes as Grayscale has filed to convert its $29 million Chainlink Trust into an exchange-traded fund that will trade under the ticker GLNK on the NYSE Arca. If approved, it will be the first US-listed Chainlink ETF and one of the first with a stake component.
