At the Sibos 2026 conference in Miami Beach, held from September 28 to October 1, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov highlighted that banks are increasingly developing their own tokenized deposit chains. He argued that financial institutions now require infrastructure capable of managing multiple blockchain environments simultaneously to ensure interoperability.
Chainlink presented two primary solutions for this challenge: the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). CCIP facilitates communication between disparate networks, while CRE provides an operating environment for cross-system workflows. Nazarov noted that efficient on-chain operations could save institutions billions of dollars annually.
The company also demonstrated a framework for connecting financial institutions to the Swift blockchain ledger, enabling round-the-clock cross-border payments and smart contract execution. Additionally, Chainlink is collaborating with DTCC on the Collateral AppChain, which aims to manage collateral in near real-time across different chains without manual reconciliation.
Industry initiatives are gaining momentum, such as the Cari Network, which includes around 30 US regional banks. Furthermore, a group of 16 major banks is developing the On-Chain Money Initiative, with a target launch in 2027. These efforts aim to leverage tokenized deposits to maintain regulatory protections, such as FDIC insurance, while competing with nonbank digital currencies.
