Canton and Chainlink Might Have Solved DeFi's Biggest Collateral Problem

Chainlink's suite of oracle tools is now live on Canton, the public blockchain built for institutional finance, giving the ecosystem access to real-time pricing, asset verification, and valuation data required to support regulated financial markets. 

The deployment includes Chainlink Data Streams, SmartData NAV and AUM feeds, and Proof of Reserve, with Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) also set to launch on Canton in the near future.

What Is Canton and Why Does It Matter for Institutional Finance?

Canton is a public blockchain developed by Digital Asset. Unlike general-purpose chains, it is purpose-built for regulated financial institutions that need privacy controls, compliance features, and the ability to handle large transaction volumes.

Since its mainnet launch in May 2024, Canton has reportedly processed approximately $350 billion in daily U.S. Treasury repo transactions and now underpins more than $8 trillion in onchain real-world assets (RWAs). An RWA is a tokenized version of a traditional financial instrument, such as a government bond, equity, or fund share, represented on a blockchain.

Canton is also supported by a Global Synchronizer layer, which enables integration with traditional financial systems. Chainlink Labs serves as a Canton Super Validator, meaning it contributes to core network functions including governance, transaction sequencing, and that interoperability layer.

What Chainlink Products Are Now Live on Canton?

The deployment covers three key products from Chainlink's data infrastructure stack. Here is what each one does and why it matters:

• Chainlink Data Streams delivers low-latency, real-time market data to onchain applications. This includes the recently launched 24/5 Equities Streams, which provides stock and ETF pricing data covering the roughly $80 trillion U.S. equity market. The "24/5" designation means the feeds operate around the clock on weekdays, aligned with traditional market hours.
• SmartData NAV and AUM feeds deliver Net Asset Value and Assets Under Management figures, which are standard valuation metrics used in fund management. These feeds allow onchain protocols to price tokenized fund shares accurately.
• Proof of Reserve provides onchain verification that tokenized assets are backed by actual reserves. This is particularly relevant for lending and collateral applications, where institutions need to confirm that an asset's backing is real before accepting it.

Together, these tools give Canton applications the data layer they need to support lending, margining, settlement, and risk management.

Who Is Already Using Chainlink on Canton?

Several teams within the Canton ecosystem are already running Chainlink data in production environments. CBTC by BitSafe, Unhedged, Thetanuts Finance, and Kairo by AngelHack and Temple are among the early adopters. Use cases include onchain collateral management, decentralized options, and privacy-preserving prediction markets.

Eric Saraniecki, Co-Founder and Head of Network Strategy at Digital Asset, noted that the ecosystem adopted Chainlink's standards faster than expected, adding that the company plans to expand the range of available tools further.

“Together with Chainlink, Canton is enabling regulated markets to move onchain with the security and reliability needed to operate at scale,” Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs, said. “This is a defining step toward institutional finance operating fully onchain, powered by the same Chainlink infrastructure that has already enabled tens of trillions in transaction value."

CCIP Deployment Still Ahead

Chainlink CCIP, which enables secure transfer of tokenized assets between different blockchains, has not yet launched on Canton but is confirmed as an upcoming release. Once live, it will allow institutions to move tokenized RWAs across chains without relying on centralized bridge infrastructure.

Chainlink's Expanding Role Across Institutional Blockchains

The Canton deployment is part of a broader pattern. On February 10, Robinhood launched a developer testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 built on Arbitrum technology, with Chainlink listed as the oracle infrastructure provider alongside Alchemy, LayerZero, and TRM. The chain is designed to support tokenized traditional stocks ahead of a planned mainnet launch.

Separately, on February 11, Ondo Finance integrated Chainlink price feeds for tokenized U.S. equities on Ethereum, enabling users to borrow stablecoins against tokenized stocks, including SPYon, QQQon, and TSLAon, through the Euler lending platform. Chainlink also serves as the official oracle solution for Ondo Global Markets, the largest tokenized securities platform by trading volume.

What This Means for Collateral in DeFi

The Ondo integration addresses a long-standing technical gap: tokenized stocks previously could not be used as productive collateral in decentralized finance because protocols had no reliable way to price them. With live Chainlink price feeds, those assets can now serve as collateral for stablecoin loans, turning static equity holdings into usable liquidity.

Conclusion

With Data Streams, SmartData, and Proof of Reserve now live on Canton, institutions operating on the network have access to real-time pricing, reserve verification, and fund valuation data within a regulatory-grade environment. Chainlink's role as a Super Validator adds another layer of integration at the network level. 

CCIP, once deployed, will add cross-chain asset transfer to that stack. The tools are already in active use by multiple Canton ecosystem teams, building out collateral, derivatives, and prediction market applications on a network that processes hundreds of billions in daily transactions.

Resources

1. Chainlink on X: Posts (February, 2026)

2. Press release by Chainlink and Canton Network: Chainlink Now Live on Canton, Accelerating Institutional-Grade Tokenization at Scale

3. Press release by Robinhood 1: Robinhood Chain Launches Public Testnet

4. Report by Fortune: Robinhood launches test version of its own blockchain

5. Report by The Street: Ondo partners with Chainlink to bring tokenized stocks to DeFi