Chainlink

Chainlink is a middleware infrastructure that allows smart contract users on a blockchain to access external data from different sources. This allows developers to design self-executing contracts that can query multiple data feeds from a variety of nodes to cross-check and ensure data consistency. DeFi protocols, such as Aave, Compound, and Nexus Mutual, use Chainlink. For DeFi use cases, Chainlink can be used to obtain off-chain data such as asset prices or even weather information for use in applications such as insurance, derivatives trading, and decentralized exchanges.

In June 2022, Chainlink launched its price feeds on the Solana blockchain to enable DeFi developers to use the feeds within DApps. Chainlink offered seven price feeds (including BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and USDC/USD) upon launch, with plans for more oracle services and price feeds to be offered in the future. It went on to launch its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) on Arbitrum One, an Ethereum-focused Layer 2 scaling solution developed by Offchain Labs, in September 2023. CCIP allows developers to build secure applications that can send messages, transfer tokens, and initiate actions across blockchains. It uses Chainlink's decentralized oracle networks and is designed to be secure and easy to use. In April 2024, the protocol launched a bridging app that aims to provide users with an interface for submitting and monitoring cross-chain transactions on CCIP. Users can move crypto tokens and messages between several blockchains including Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon.

In December 2022, Chainlink launched a feature that enabled the staking of LINK (its native token). The pool, which was launched in beta, was capped at 25 million LINK. Notably, the company stated that token rewards would be locked until the next version of the protocol was released in 9–12 months, after which, it planned to scale up to 75 million LINK over time. As of December 2023, the company had released version 2 of this feature in early access and increased the cap to 45 million LINK.

Key customers and partnerships 

As of April 2024, the protocol served a number of DeFi projects and large enterprises including Avera, Synthetix, Compound, NBA, Lemonade, Swisscom, and Nexus Mutual.

In August 2022, Chainlink partnered with Interest Protocol (IP), a borrow/lend protocol launched with Chainlink as the primary oracle, to increase the security of the IP platform. IP will be able to integrate Chainlink Keepersa decentralized transaction automation service and Chainlink Proof of Reserve (PoR)–a system that autonomously verifies off-chain collateral in real-time. IP will also receive strategic advice from Chainlink. 

The company has entered a number of partnerships to power blockchain-based applications with its CCIP. In May 2024, the company partnered with Rapid Addition, an electronic trading technology provider, to develop a FIX-native adapter for institutional digital asset trading. Powered by Chainlink's CCIP, the adapter will enable banks and financial institutions to leverage existing trading infrastructure to interact with tokenized assets. In December 2024, the company went on to partner with Coinbase to integrate its blockchain oracle network into the latter's asset tokenization platform, Project Diamond. The partnership enables Project Diamond to leverage Chainlink's CCIP and Functions to offer users access to verifiable data across public and private blockchains, and enhanced compliance and lifecycle management of tokenized assets.