San Francisco, CA – January 20, 2026 – Chainlink, the industry-leading decentralized oracle network, today announced the official launch of Chainlink 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams, a significant expansion of its acclaimed Data Streams service. This innovative offering is designed to deliver rapid, cryptographically secured market data for U.S. equities and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) across all trading sessions, extending beyond traditional market hours. Now live across more than 40 blockchains, Data Streams empower protocols to construct robust onchain equity markets, including sophisticated equity perpetuals, dynamic prediction markets, and various other financial instruments that operate continuously, far surpassing the limitations of conventional trading schedules. This launch represents a pivotal advancement towards establishing truly always-on, institutional-grade equity markets within the blockchain ecosystem, fundamentally bridging the operational gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).

The integration of U.S. equities data into the blockchain environment has long been hampered by a fundamental mismatch in operational philosophies. While blockchain networks inherently function 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, traditional U.S. equity markets adhere to highly structured and fragmented trading sessions. These typically include pre-market, regular trading, and after-hours sessions, each with distinct liquidity profiles and operational rules. The vast majority of existing onchain data solutions have historically provided only a single price point for equities, primarily during standard market hours (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET on weekdays). This creates substantial "pricing blind spots" outside these limited windows, introducing considerable risk for onchain financial products attempting to track real-world asset values. Such limitations have significantly hindered the development of secure, scalable, and reliable equity-based financial applications within the burgeoning decentralized finance landscape.

The problem is particularly acute given the accelerating trend of Real-World Assets (RWAs) gaining traction within the blockchain space. RWAs encompass any tangible or intangible asset with value in the real world that can be tokenized and managed on a blockchain. Industry estimates, such as those cited by Coinpedia, project the RWA market to reach an astounding $30 trillion by 2030, underscoring the immense potential for growth. However, U.S. equities, which collectively represent one of the largest and most liquid asset classes globally—with a total market capitalization estimated to be well over $50 trillion as of late 2025—have remained significantly underrepresented onchain. This underrepresentation stems directly from the inability of existing oracle solutions to provide the continuous, high-fidelity data required to accurately reflect market dynamics around the clock. As onchain markets mature and global participation in products like equity perpetuals expands, the demand for such uninterrupted, precise equity data has become increasingly urgent.

Chainlink 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams were meticulously engineered to overcome these systemic challenges. The service operates by ingesting fragmented U.S. equity market data from a diverse array of high-quality sources, including leading exchanges and data providers, and then transforming it into continuous, cryptographically signed Data Streams. This process ensures data integrity, authenticity, and freshness, critical for financial applications. By providing this continuous flow of verifiable data, onchain equity markets gain access to more reliable pricing mechanisms, leading to safer liquidations in derivatives protocols, stronger and more responsive risk management frameworks, and a consistently smooth user experience that transcends standard trading hours. This innovation fundamentally alters the operational paradigm for decentralized applications interacting with traditional financial markets, enabling them to reflect real-world market conditions with unprecedented accuracy and continuity.

The Evolution of Onchain Data: Beyond Basic Price Feeds

Chainlink’s approach to RWA data is distinguished by its comprehensive nature, moving far beyond simple price points. The 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams offer an expanded coverage and enhanced data schema, providing a robust set of metadata and schema options for consuming U.S. Equities data onchain. This includes not just the current price but also crucial information such as:

• Bid and Ask Prices: Essential for understanding market depth and liquidity, enabling more sophisticated trading strategies.
• Volume Data: Provides insight into market activity and sentiment across various sessions.
• Timestamping: Cryptographically secured timestamps ensure the recency and validity of data points.
• Exchange Information: Identifies the source exchange, offering transparency and context.
• Historical Data Points: Crucial for backtesting, analytics, and complex financial modeling.
• Volatility Metrics: Enabling more nuanced risk assessments and dynamic collateral adjustments.

This rich data schema is paramount for supporting advanced execution and risk management strategies within onchain protocols. For instance, lending protocols can utilize more granular data for dynamic collateralization, adjusting loan-to-value ratios based on real-time market volatility. Derivatives platforms can implement more precise liquidation mechanisms, reducing cascading liquidations and improving overall market stability.

Unlocking a New Era of Onchain Financial Products

The expanded coverage and enhanced data schemas of 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams unlock a wide spectrum of new and improved onchain use cases, paving the way for a more integrated global financial system:

• Always-On Equity Perpetuals: Derivatives markets can now offer continuous trading for U.S. equity perpetuals, allowing users to gain exposure to price movements of major stocks and ETFs without the constraints of traditional market hours. This opens up opportunities for global traders across different time zones.
• Dynamic Prediction Markets: Platforms can create more accurate and responsive prediction markets based on U.S. equity performance, leveraging continuous data for settlement and payouts.
• Enhanced Lending and Borrowing Protocols: Equities and ETFs can be used as more reliable collateral in decentralized lending protocols, with real-time valuations ensuring greater security for lenders and borrowers alike. This significantly boosts capital efficiency within DeFi.
• Structured Products and Index Funds: The continuous availability of high-fidelity data facilitates the creation of sophisticated structured products, synthetic assets, and onchain index funds tracking U.S. equity performance.
• Advanced Risk Management: Protocols can implement more robust risk models, enabling dynamic margin requirements, circuit breakers, and other safeguards based on comprehensive, up-to-the-minute market data.
• Global Accessibility: Investors from any geographic location can participate in equity-linked financial products, circumventing traditional geographic and time-zone barriers that often restrict access to U.S. markets.

The implications for global market access are particularly profound. Previously, a trader in Asia or Europe might be forced to trade U.S. equities with significant time delays or rely on less liquid after-hours markets, increasing execution risk. With 24/5 data streams, onchain protocols can offer a more level playing field, enabling more equitable participation and fostering truly global capital markets.

Industry-Leading Adoption and Validation

The immediate and enthusiastic adoption of Chainlink 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams by prominent protocols underscores the critical market demand for such a solution. Leading platforms are already leveraging this infrastructure to power their next-generation financial products:

• Lighter: Ranked as the #2 perpetuals Decentralized Exchange (DEX) by volume, Lighter has expanded its partnership with Chainlink to integrate 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams as its official oracle solution for RWA markets. Vladimir Novakovski, Founder & CEO of Lighter, stated, "We’re excited to expand our partnership with Chainlink as Lighter’s official oracle solution for RWA markets by integrating 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams. This enables us to extend our fair, low-latency perp execution beyond regular market hours without compromising data integrity." This highlights the importance of reliable, low-latency data for high-volume derivatives trading.
• BitMEX: As the pioneering inventor of crypto perpetuals, BitMEX’s adoption of the new streams speaks volumes about their necessity for institutional-grade infrastructure. Stephan Lutz, CEO of BitMEX, commented, "For derivatives markets, security and data integrity matter more than anything. Chainlink’s 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams are a critical component of our professional-grade 24/7 equity derivatives infrastructure, providing the verifiable pricing context needed to operate beyond standard market hours." This endorsement from a platform known for its rigorous standards in derivatives trading validates the robustness and security of Chainlink’s solution.

Beyond these leaders, several other innovative protocols are also incorporating the 24/5 streams, including ApeX, HelloTrade, Decibel, Monaco, Opinion Labs, and Orderly Network. This widespread early adoption across various segments of the onchain finance ecosystem—from derivatives exchanges to lending platforms and prediction markets—serves as a powerful testament to the growing demand for institutional-grade data infrastructure capable of supporting always-on equity markets. It signals a collective industry recognition that continuous, verifiable market data is not merely an enhancement but a fundamental requirement for the maturation and mainstream adoption of onchain RWAs.

Broader Implications for TradFi and DeFi Integration

The launch of Chainlink 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams represents more than just a technological upgrade; it signifies a structural shift in how traditional financial assets can interact with decentralized networks. This development accelerates the convergence of TradFi and DeFi, addressing one of the most persistent barriers to institutional participation in the blockchain space: the disconnect in operational hours and data availability.

By providing a reliable, secure, and continuous data bridge for U.S. equities, Chainlink is laying the groundwork for:

• Increased Institutional Adoption: Financial institutions, which demand robust, compliant, and continuously available data, will find it easier to build and integrate blockchain-based products linked to traditional assets. This could unlock vast pools of institutional capital into DeFi.
• Enhanced Market Efficiency: Global liquidity for U.S. equities can be deepened as traders and algorithms can react to market events and execute strategies around the clock, reducing arbitrage opportunities arising from data lags.
• New Regulatory Frameworks: The ability to verifiably prove continuous market conditions on-chain could facilitate the development of new regulatory approaches for tokenized securities and derivatives, fostering trust and compliance.
• Decentralized Global Exchanges: The foundation is being built for truly global, decentralized exchanges that can operate without geographic or time-based limitations, offering unprecedented access and liquidity.

This innovation is particularly timely given the broader macroeconomic trends and the increasing digitization of financial services. As global markets become more interconnected, the demand for resilient, always-on infrastructure that can seamlessly transfer value and information across disparate systems will only intensify. Chainlink’s role as a neutral, decentralized oracle network is crucial in ensuring that this data bridge is not only efficient but also secure and resistant to manipulation.

Getting Started and Looking Ahead

Developers eager to harness the power of continuous equity data can integrate Chainlink 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams today. The official documentation, accessible via chain.link/data-streams, provides comprehensive details on available feeds, data schemas, and integration paths across the 40+ supported blockchains. For more tailored assistance, the Chainlink team is available for direct consultation.

The introduction of 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams marks another significant milestone in Chainlink’s overarching mission to solve the most complex onchain data challenges and unlock robust, real-world financial markets onchain. This continuous innovation is part of a broader roadmap aimed at expanding data coverage across new asset classes and diverse geographies. Products like 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams are foundational elements in realizing a future where onchain markets are perpetually active, globally accessible, and fully prepared for institutional engagement. While 24/5 coverage is a massive leap forward, Chainlink’s long-term vision extends to full 24/7 coverage, further eliminating any remaining temporal gaps in data provision for onchain markets. Interested parties are encouraged to reach out to learn more about accessing full 24/7 coverage as it becomes available.

To delve deeper into Chainlink’s ecosystem and future developments, visit chain.link, subscribe to the Chainlink newsletter, and follow Chainlink on Twitter and YouTube. Further insights into Chainlink Labs can be found on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and contains statements about the future, including anticipated product features, development, and timelines for the rollout of these features. These statements are only predictions and reflect current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events; they are based on assumptions and are subject to risk, uncertainties, and changes at any time. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in these statements, although we believe them to be based on reasonable assumptions. All statements are valid only as of the date first posted. These statements may not reflect future developments due to user feedback or later events, and we may not update this post in response. Please review the Chainlink Terms of Service, which provides important information and disclosures.