- Chainlink’s founder was featured in Citibank’s recent report examining changes in the post-trade industry and digital assets.
- The bank notes that the growing institutional interest is accelerating the digital asset market’s development and maturity.
In a recent report on the future of custody and settlement, Citibank placed a spotlight on Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink Labs, highlighting the growing importance of blockchain interoperability and data standardization in shaping the next era of global finance.
The report, titled “The Evolution of Post-Trade: Real-Time Asset Servicing,” examines the transition toward an “always-on financial system.”
According to the report, the financial space is shifting toward an “always-on” model where transactions, collateral transfers, and settlements happen continuously rather than during set trading hours. A driver of this is the adoption of digital assets.
Digital Assets and Interoperability
The report acknowledged that,
One of the biggest changes in the post-trade world is the institutional adoption of digital assets.
Digital assets scored as the category having the highest positive delta year-on-year in answer to our survey question on business impact, and the second most important category in absolute terms.
Digital assets are both part of the overall shift to real-time, ‘always on’ financial market infrastructure, and they also represent a fundamental change in technology.
In 2025, 82% of survey respondents said distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets could transform market structure, up from 72% in 2024. The key advantages highlighted include greater liquidity, enhanced collateral mobility, and lower post-trade processing costs, with nearly 90% of respondents citing these benefits, an increase from about 75% the previous year.
Nazarov emphasized that as more platforms and institutions adopt on-chain solutions for posting collateral, the benefits of 24/7, 365-day-a-year collateral mobility will become increasingly obvious. He explained that to fully unlock this potential, the financial industry must adopt clear standards and reliable technologies that enable both secure data transmission on-chain and seamless interoperability between different blockchain networks.
This capability would allow collateral to be moved frictionlessly from one chain to another, ensuring real-time liquidity and risk management.
They also noted that regulatory change, particularly in the U.S., is playing a key role in supporting this transformation. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency, the administration has taken a more industry-friendly, pro-growth stance toward digital assets.
This isn’t Citi’s first nod to Chainlink. In September, Chainlink Labs was also featured in Citibank’s “Securities Services Evolution 2025” report for its role in advancing interoperability standards across both public and private blockchain networks.
In the report, Sergey Nazarov emphasized that fragmentation remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. He explained that with millions of digital assets scattered across thousands of different blockchains, achieving true interoperability is essential to creating scalable global markets.
Nazarov drew a parallel to the early days of the internet, when isolated intranets were eventually unified through Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, unlocking the modern digital landscape. Similarly, he argued, blockchain and oracle technology can lay the foundation for the next evolution of finance.
By enabling secure, seamless data and value transfer across blockchains and traditional financial systems, Chainlink is helping accelerate the convergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi) into a unified, efficient, and programmable global financial ecosystem.
Chainlink currently trades at $22.11 and has generated $1.05 billion in trading volume over the past day. With a market cap of $14 billion, it holds the 12th spot in the crypto rankings. The asset is down 3.72% on the day, reflecting the market’s volatility.
