Grayscale Calls Chainlink the ‘Critical Connective Tissue’ for Tokenized Finance in New Report

Grayscale Research has referred to Chainlink as the foundational infrastructure layer for the growing tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector in a newly published report titled The LINK Between Worlds as the “critical connective tissue” bridging cryptocurrency and traditional finance.

The report comes two months after Grayscale filed with the SEC in September to convert its existing $29 million Grayscale Chainlink Trust into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) under the ticker GLNK on NYSE Arca. If approved, the product would be the first U.S.-listed ETF offering direct exposure to LINK with staking rewards.

As of November 23, 2025, LINK is currently trading at $12.05 with an $8.74 billion market capitalization, making it the highest-cap cryptocurrency that is neither a layer-1 blockchain nor a stablecoin.

Grayscale estimates the on-chain tokenized RWA market increased from about $5 billion at the start of 2023 to a range of $33 billion and $35 billion at the end of 2025. Despite the fast growth, the segment still accounts for just 0.01% of the global fixed-income and equity markets. 

The company cites Standard Chartered predictions that the sector could reach $2 trillion by 2028 and as much as $30 trillion by 2034, excluding stablecoins.

Chainlink’s Institutional Momentum and Infrastructure Edge

The report states Chainlink’s fast-changing technology improvements, including its oracle network, the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), the Automated Compliance Engine (ACE), and the recently launched Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), as their unique inventions ready to solve the core technical and regulatory challenges that are facing tokenized assets.

In the report, several institutional milestones that have been reached were mentioned. Some include the first-of-its-kind cross-chain delivery-versus-payment transaction in June involving JPMorgan’s Kinexys and Ondo Finance that settled tokenized United States Treasuries against fiat without off-chain movement, the November on-chain publication of FTSE Russell and S&P Global indices representing $18 trillion in benchmarked assets, and an August collaboration with the United States Department of Commerce to bring official GDP and PCE data on-chain.

Others include the 2025 partnerships with Japan’s SBI Group, with over $78 billion in assets under management; ANZ; China AMC; Fidelity International; Intercontinental Exchange; Mastercard;   and Saudi Awwal Bank. 

Tokenized United States Treasuries and money market funds have reached more than $7.4 billion in outstanding value, up 80% year-to-date.

Grayscale also notes that Chainlink developer activity has increased by 2.3× year-over-year, surpassing most top protocols, while the network now supports more than 2,500 live integrations.

This article was originally published as Grayscale Calls Chainlink the ‘Critical Connective Tissue’ for Tokenized Finance in New Report on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.