Chainlink, Swift Complete Tokenization Tests With Citi Bank, BNY Mellon, and Others

Swift announced today that it successfully conducted a variety of blockchain interoperability tests with over ten financial institutions like Citi, BNP Paribas, and BNY Mellon.

The interbank messaging service tapped oracle provider Chainlink to establish a connection with Sepolia, a popular Ethereum testnet.

Just over a month after launching its new Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP)–a sort of blockchain communication network not dissimilar to Swift–the two firms were able to send tokenized assets between the testnet and other blockchains.

The experiments revolved around linking traditional financial assets with blockchain networks, a process termed tokenization.

Tokenization has become quite popular of late, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calling it the “next generation of markets” and Avalanche launching a $50 million fund dedicated to the niche.

The cross-chain protocol started with support for four blockchains: Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon. CCIP has also been adopted by DeFi lending protocols Aave and Synthetix.

Swift aims to establish a secure and speedy connection between traditional finance and multiple public and private blockchains for the transfer of tokenized assets.

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, also added that “adoption will happen using multiple different blockchain technologies at the same time,” suggesting that a multichain ecosystem of blockchains will be the future.

“When combining Swift and CCIP, we were able to show that this new level of interoperability across various blockchains is now possible with minimal resources from even the largest banks and market infrastructures,” said Nazarov.

Swift’s chief innovation officer Tom Zschach said that the experiments demonstrate that “Swift infrastructure can provide that central point of connectivity” to connect with different blockchains and foster the “development of tokenization.”