Chainlink Teams Up with ANZ Bank for RWA Tokenization Efforts

On September 30, Chainlink Labs revealed its official partnership with ANZ, a prominent Australian bank managing over $750 billion (more than A$1 trillion) in assets.

This collaboration is part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian initiative.

Chainlink will facilitate the secure cross-chain transfer of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) using its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

.@ChainlinkLabs has officially partnered with ANZ—a leading Australian bank holding over A$1 trillion in AUM—under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian.#Chainlink CCIP will enable secure cross-chain exchanges of tokenized RWAs. https://t.co/nlXJPJKjDv

— Chainlink (@chainlink) September 30, 2024

Chainlink Exploring RWA More Deeply

ANZ announced its participation in the MAS project to expand access to tokenized real-world assets within financial markets and enhance interoperability between private blockchains.

Mark Evans, head of ANZ Singapore, highlighted that MAS leads globally in digitizing the financial system through collaborative efforts and stated:

“We are excited to join Project Guardian and contribute to the swift development of a stable, secure digital asset ecosystem, which will be vital for meeting future customer needs across the region.”

Nigel Dobson, ANZ Banking Services Lead, pointed out that tokenized asset markets exhibit significant fragmentation, with assets and services spread across various blockchains lacking native interoperability.

“This fragmentation can hinder the adoption of tokenized assets and complicate the integration process for financial institutions,” he stated.

He further noted that this partnership would enable the bank to showcase its emerging capabilities in digital assets, such as the A$DC, an Australian dollar stablecoin first launched in March 2022.

Project Guardian, initiated by MAS in May 2022, aims to investigate DeFi’s potential in the financial sector and has since broadened its focus to include tokenization of real-world assets.

Currently, there are $12.7 billion worth of RWAs tokenized on-chain, according to rwa.xyz, with private credit accounting for the majority at $9 billion. Furthermore, RWA tokenization has experienced a 53% increase since the beginning of this year.

LINK Price Response

Chainlink’s native token, LINK, did not show any significant reaction to the announcement of the ANZ partnership. The asset has decreased by 1.4% on the day, dropping to $12.13 at the time of this writing.

Like many altcoins, LINK has faced severe declines over the past six months, plummeting nearly 50% from its peak of nearly $22 earlier this year.

Despite several noteworthy partnerships and ongoing protocol advancements, LINK remains down 77% from its all-time high of $52.70 recorded in May 2021.