How Chainlink Is Making a Huge Comeback with Tokenization
Welcome to another Crypto Weekly Digest brought to you by VirtualBacon.
This week, our focus shifts to the emerging narrative of tokenization, an area BlackRock is deeply exploring. The significance? Chainlink is positioning itself as the essential infrastructure for traditional financial giants like JP Morgan and City Bank to transition their assets to the blockchain. We’ll delve into this new narrative, examine how it distinguishes from other crypto assets, and discuss the broader implications for the blockchain ecosystem. As with every week, we'll conclude with a snapshot of market movements and pivotal project developments that have surfaced.
BlackRock's Dive into Tokenization
BlackRock is making strides into tokenizing traditional finance and securities, positioning them firmly on the blockchain.
This idea, while straightforward, holds the potential to revolutionize the finance world. By doing so, operations could become a 24/7 affair, greatly reducing costs and inefficiencies. With a staggering $16 trillion market cap in sight, the implications are huge.
Recently, industry giants like JP Morgan, Fidelity, and Citi have echoed similar sentiments. They foresee a future where securities markets wholly embrace blockchain technology. The anticipated outcome? Swifter, transparent settlements and reduced fees. Keep in mind, these big companies use outdated systems. While not all of the $16 trillion in tokenized securities might end up on public blockchains, the innovation is real.
Chainlink emerges as a frontrunner, bridging traditional financial institutions with this new-age tech. This isn't just a passing trend; even back in March, BlackRock already signaled the significance of tokenization, noting a considerable lag in the U.S. market's adoption of this innovation.
https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-ceo-us-lagging-innovation-tokenization
JP Morgan's Private Blockchain
Last week, an intriguing move was made by JP Morgan, who introduced tokenized BlackRock shares as collateral with Barclays.
Diving deeper, it's evident that JP Morgan has been crafting their own private blockchain for some time. Their goal? To streamline token-based settlement and trading. Leveraging Ethereum's robust framework, they've developed the Onyx blockchain and the Tokenized Collateral Network (TCN). These platforms allowed BlackRock to tokenize shares from one of their money market funds. Although it utilizes Ethereum's smart contracts, it's essential to understand that JP Morgan’s systems are private blockchains, distinct from public ones.
Just a few weeks back, other banking heavyweights, like City and Franklin Templeton, also hopped onto the tokenization bandwagon. Interestingly, both City and JP Morgan have chosen private blockchains for this initiative.
16 Trillion Market Opportunity
A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group unveils the staggering market opportunity for tokenized assets. From listed securities, real estate, to other financial markets, currently, only $600 billion worth of assets are tokenized. Yet, the prediction for next year is a jump to 1.5 trillion. By 2030, this could skyrocket to a massive $16 trillion market.
Now, it's essential to note that not all of these assets will find their place on platforms like Ethereum or in decentralized finance (DeFi). Yet, the significant push towards adopting Ethereum-based technologies, even if on private blockchains, signals the reality of this massive shift.
Chainlink for Tokenization
Chainlink emerges as a crucial player. Serving as a bridge, it connects traditional equity markets to blockchain platforms, fueling tokenization. While new crypto projects are surfacing, giants like BlackRock and JP Morgan have distinct needs, and Chainlink might just be the solution they're looking for.
Chainlink's recent endeavors have been laser-focused on a singular mission: to position themselves as the go-to middleware in the growing world of tokenization. The aim? Facilitating a seamless connection between enterprises and the blockchain universe.
Whether it's Swift, New Zealand banking group, BNP Paribas, or other key players in the financial domain, Chainlink stands as the intermediary. Their comprehensive suite of products ensures compatibility with both public blockchains, like Ethereum or Avalanche, and private ones such as Quorum or JP Morgan's Onyx. These strategic moves are not just theoretical; recent pilot programs have demonstrated Chainlink's capability and promise in this rapidly evolving space.
Chainlink and SWIFT
Back in August, Chainlink embarked on an ambitious trial with SWIFT. The goal? To validate the transfer of tokenized assets across diverse blockchains. The results were clear: Chainlink seamlessly facilitated the transfer of value across both private and public blockchains.
Several financial giants like BNP Paribas and DTCC were participants in this trial. The underlying tech hero here was Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). This experiment wasn’t restricted to Ethereum. Other blockchains, such as Avalanche and Quorum, were also tested, emphasizing the universal appeal and compatibility of Chainlink’s solution. While Chainlink was previously recognized mainly as an Oracle provider for DeFi, it’s evident that their vision for 2023 and beyond is to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the blockchain world.
Chainlink Post-SmartCon Updates
Following their SmartCon event in the beginning of October, Chainlink unveiled several new product suites. These innovations aim to further solidify Chainlink's position in the blockchain ecosystem.
Chainlink Automation
In the world of smart contracts, Chainlink has introduced its "Automation" suite, simplifying the interaction between traditional enterprises and blockchain technology.
Rather than building an extensive decentralized application, firms like JP Morgan and BlackRock can streamline their process using Chainlink's tools. In essence, Chainlink Automation acts as a bridge, allowing familiar API calls from traditional development environments to trigger and interact with Ethereum-based smart contracts. With the addition of "Chainlink Functions", this transition becomes even smoother. It connects the vast world of APIs to Web3.0 swiftly, enabling any standard web developer to interact with smart contracts effortlessly, thereby removing the steep learning curve associated with blockchain development.
Chainlink Proof of Reserves
Chainlink has introduced its "Proof of Reserves" mechanism, aimed at strengthening trust and transparency in the digital space.
https://chain.link/proof-of-reserve
When entities like JP Morgan or Black Rock tokenize assets, there's a critical need to ensure that these assets are genuinely backed and verifiable. Chainlink's solution serves to confirm that the assets claimed to be on-hand truly exist, and are appropriately collateralized. It's an essential step to guarantee trustworthiness in tokenization. This not only strengthens confidence for institutional players but also sets a gold standard for tokenized asset verification across the industry.
Chainlink CCIP
Chainlink's CCIP is playing a pivotal role in bridging different blockchain platforms.
https://chain.link/cross-chain
Traditional financial institutions, while interested in utilizing the Ethereum tech stack, often lean towards private versions of Ethereum, such as JP Morgan's Onyx or City Bank's Quorum. The significance of CCIP is its ability to connect not only to public Ethereum but also to these private blockchain variants.
With CCIP, assets can be seamlessly transferred between a private platform like JP Morgan's and public Ethereum. Chainlink stands uniquely poised to serve these traditional players' tokenization needs. While Ethereum's technology underpins these experiments, Chainlink is carving a niche as a key facilitator in this emerging landscape.
Tokenization and the Road Ahead
The recent surge in the real-world asset (RWA) sector within crypto has been notable. However, true growth and success hinge on tighter regulation. While crypto-native RWA initiatives have shown promise, many might face challenges, as evidenced by the recent 50% price crash of the USDR stable coin, backed by tangible real estate.
https://www.theblock.co/post/255946/real-usd-usdr-stablecoin-depegs-and-price-crashes-by-50
This incident underscores the risk of unregulated endeavors in this space. Despite these setbacks, there's optimism around traditional financial institutions tokenizing their assets, harnessing benefits like real-time settlement and 24/7 operations. In this evolving narrative, Ethereum and Chainlink emerge as pivotal players in driving this growth.
Altcoin Market and Project Updates
Now, let's check out the major altcoin gainers and losers from the past week, and catch up on key project updates.
Best Performing Coins of The Week
Worst Performing Coins of The Week
🟠 Upcoming Uniswap V4 reported to implement KYC, impacting user anonymity and potentially platform usage in the DeFi space.
https://x.com/WuBlockchain/status/1713486653464137970?s=20
🟠 Rekt Game launched on Ethereum & BNB chains, merging crash games & Telegram bots. $Rekt hits ~$24; FDV at $7m on day of launch.
https://twitter.com/CryptoHayes/status/1712089373544796535?s=20
🟠 Polygon introduces PIP-29 for a 13-member council to manage upgrades. Aiming for decentralized decision-making, Polygon 2.0 is the end goal.
🟠 MultiversX partners with Google Cloud to enhance Web3 services, integrate onto platform, and boost dApp performance & scalability.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-cloud-joins-multiversx-amid-metaverse-focus
🟠 Aptos faced a 5-hour outage during its 1-year anniversary event. The incident spiked transaction fees and raised concerns about its reliability.
https://decrypt.co/202340/aptos-hit-5-hour-outage-blockchains-first-birthday
🟠 Ethereum's L2 Scroll network, using zero-knowledge proofs, launches on mainnet, promising faster speeds, lower fees, and efficient dApp development.
https://x.com/Scroll_ZKP/status/1714267555307950451?s=20
🟠 Uniswap introduces 0.15% fee on select tokens like ETH, USDC, to fund operations. Fees apply on specific interfaces and swaps.
http://support.uniswap.org/hc/en-us/articles/20131678274957-What-are-Uniswap-Labs-fees
🟠 Roblox now accepts XRP for in-game purchases, facilitated by Xsolla and BitPay. The integration caters to Roblox's 200M monthly users.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/roblox-integrates-xrp-payment-method
🟠 Polkadot Treasury spent $21M in 2023, up from $13M in 2022, with 50% on development. PolkaWorld ceased operations.
https://forum.polkadot.network/t/polkadot-treasury-report-2023-q3/4333
🟠 Yuga Labs finalizes restructuring, prioritizes Otherside metaverse; will support BAYC events.
https://www.theblock.co/post/258048/yuga-labs-otherside-focus-restructuring
Wrapping up this week, we delved into the transformative advances Chainlink has made, particularly after their SmartCon event. From bolstering smart contract automation to ensuring the integrity of reserves and boosting interoperability with their CCIP, Chainlink continues to position itself as a leading player in blockchain integration. We also discussed the critical importance of regulations in the evolving tokenization landscape and the potential challenges and rewards that come with it. As always, we also checked out the biggest winners and losers in the altcoin world, plus all the must-know project updates over the course of the past week.
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