Asset tokenization expected to speed capital flows, says Chainlink's Nazarov

Asset tokenization is set to accelerate the movement of capital across traditional markets, according to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov. Speaking with Cointelegraph at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Nazarov said the shift will boost capital velocity in asset classes such as treasuries, equities, private credit, commercial debt, and real estate.

"I think that there are two sides to this equation. One is the asset, and the other one is the payment. So, you need more high-quality assets onchain, but you also need more frictionless payments that existing institutions can use easily," Nazarov said on May 14.

The remarks came on the same day Chainlink announced a partnership with Kinexys, a blockchain network for institutional-grade tokenized assets by JP Morgan, and digital asset firm Ondo Finance. Together, the companies will develop payment rails for institutions trading tokenized real-world assets onchain.

The partnership tested the exchange of Ondo's US Government Treasuries Fund (OUSG), a tokenized short-term US debt fund, with Kinexys, using Chainlink's Runtime Environment — a framework for connecting legacy financial systems to blockchains in a unified environment.

"What Chainlink is trying to do is kick off a virtuous cycle that triggers kind of a runaway success for the industry as a whole. We want more assets onchain, Nazarov added. "We want more payment systems onchain," he continued.

The partnership reflects the broader institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies and Web3 technologies, following a positive regulatory shift in the United States post-2024 elections and the resignation of Gary Gensler, former chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects smart contracts on blockchains with real-world data, APIs, and offchain systems. Nazarov said the company has been coordinating transactions between financial institutions, asset issuers, and regulators.

Chainlink markets its “Runtime Environment" as an upgrade to legacy financial systems' protocols, including the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) standard — an operating language developed in 1959 for automated teller machines (ATMs) — and the Java Runtime architecture for online banking applications.

Nazarov previously stressed that the United States needs to establish a competitive moat around tokenized assets to keep US capital markets competitive and attractive in the age of global, permissionless finance.

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