Chainlink and FTSE Russell announced today a landmark collaboration that will, for the first time, publish FTSE Russell’s benchmark index data directly onto blockchains via Chainlink’s DataLink service. The move makes some of the world’s most widely used indices, including Russell and FTSE benchmarks, available 24/7 to developers and financial institutions building onchain products, a step both firms say will accelerate adoption of tokenized assets and regulated onchain financial services.
FTSE Russell’s indices already underpin more than $18 trillion in assets under management, and the firm’s decision to put that data onchain is positioned as a way to give DeFi protocols and institutional builders the same high-quality, auditable benchmarks they rely on in traditional finance. Chainlink says FTSE Russell joins over 2,000 applications and major banks, asset managers and infrastructure providers across dozens of public and private chains that use its oracle and data services.
DataLink, the turnkey data-publishing product powering the integration, is built on Chainlink’s data standard and is designed to let data owners push market data to multiple blockchains without building bespoke infrastructure. Chainlink has pitched DataLink as an institutional-grade bridge between legacy market data and onchain markets, enabling real-time, tamper-evident distribution of benchmarks that can be referenced by smart contracts and tokenized products.
Powering Tokenized Assets with Onchain Benchmarks
FTSE Russell’s CEO Fiona Bassett framed the move as a significant enabler of new financial products. “We’re excited to bring our index data onchain using Chainlink’s institutional-grade infrastructure. This marks a major step in enabling innovation around tokenized assets, ETFs, and next-generation financial products. DataLink allows FTSE Russell to securely distribute underlying data of some of our most trusted benchmarks across global onchain markets, giving institutions and developers the same high-quality data that powers traditional finance,” Bassett said in the announcement.
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov called the collaboration “a landmark moment” for the industry, underscoring how bringing institutional-grade benchmarks onchain could open the door to regulated, data-driven financial products built directly on blockchain rails. Chainlink pointed to its long track record as an oracle provider, noting its infrastructure has been used to enable trillions in transaction value and secures a large share of total value locked in DeFi, to emphasize the scale and reliability it claims for delivering market data to chains.
The deal is another major example of traditional market data providers exploring how to productize and monetize their datasets for onchain markets. Chainlink has already struck similar arrangements with other market-data businesses in recent months, and the company’s DataLink push appears aimed at making it simpler for legacy firms to reach blockchain-native developers while maintaining control and provenance over their feeds.
For builders, the practical implication is straightforward: index values and related market benchmarks from FTSE Russell will now be referenceable inside smart contracts across multiple chains, removing a barrier for institutions that want to launch tokenized ETFs, structured products, or other regulated offerings that need reliable, auditable benchmarks. Chainlink and FTSE Russell say the integration is designed to provide the same trust and governance institutions expect from traditional benchmarks, now available in an onchain format.
While the market watches how traditional finance data is stitched into decentralized infrastructure, the partnership highlights a broader industry trend: large incumbents experimenting with blockchain distribution models while relying on established intermediaries to secure data fidelity. Whether that technical step will translate quickly into mainstream institutional issuance of tokenized, benchmarked products remains to be seen, but today’s announcement makes that path materially easier for the firms and developers who want to build it.
