Asset tokenization is set to accelerate capital movements across traditional markets, according to Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of ChainLink. Speaking to Cointelegraph at Toronto’s Consensus 2025, Nazarov said the shift would increase capital speeds for asset classes such as the Ministry of Finance, equities, private credit, commercial debt and real estate.
“I think there are two aspects to this equation: one is an asset and the other is a payment. So, while you need a higher quality asset, you also need a frictionless payment that is easily used by existing institutions,” Nazarov said on May 14th.
It came on the same day that ChainLink announced its blockchain network of facility-grade tokenized assets by JP Morgan, and its partnership with digital asset company Ondo Finance. Together, companies develop payment railways for institutions that trade transactions of tokenized real-world assets.
The partnership used ChainLink’s runtime environment to test the exchange of Ondo’s US Government Financial Fund (OUSG), a tokenized short-term US debt fund using Kinexys.
“What Chainlink is trying to do is launch a noble cycle that will cause a kind of runaway success for the industry as a whole, Nazarov added.
The partnership reflects the broader institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies and Web3 technology following the aggressive regulatory change in the elections since 2024 and the resignation of former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler.
Related: “Everything is lined up” – Tokenization has a breakout moment
ChainLink runtime environment
ChainLink is a distributed Oracle network that connects smart contracts on the blockchain with real data, APIs, and off-chain systems. Nazarov said the company is coordinating transactions between financial institutions, asset issuers and regulators.
ChainLink sells the “runtime environment” as an upgrade to the Regacy Financial Systems protocol. This includes the Common Business-Piented Language (COBOL) standard (an operational language developed for automatic teller machines (ATMs) in 1959) and Java runtime architecture for online banking applications.
Nazarov previously emphasized that the US needs to establish competitive moats around tokenized assets.
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