Date: October 24, 2025
By: Julia
Categories: SmartCon 2025, Institutional Finance, Tokenization

Key Takeaways

• Chainlink, SWIFT, and DTCC have jointly proven that tokenization can coexist with existing financial systems.
• The Golden Record Initiative demonstrated how AI and oracles can eliminate $58B in inefficiencies across corporate action processing.
• Chainlink CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) integrates with SWIFT ISO 20022 messaging, linking banks directly to smart contracts.
• Institutions like UBS, BNP Paribas, and the Reserve Bank of Australia have already tested automated DvP/PvP settlements via Chainlink’s infrastructure.
• The result: real-time, cross-network financial operations — without disrupting existing back-end systems.

1. The Week Ahead: SmartCon 2025 in New York

Next week, Chainlink SmartCon 2025 returns to The Metropolitan Pavilion in New York (Nov 4–5) — bringing together global leaders from Capitol Hill, traditional finance, and Web3.
The annual event is where institutions, regulators, and blockchain innovators converge to define how global markets move onchain.

This year’s discussions go beyond DeFi. Panels will spotlight tokenization, compliance, interoperability, and the rise of regulated stablecoins in capital markets, all underscoring one central theme:

The world’s financial infrastructure is being rebuilt on blockchain.

2. Global Tokenization Momentum

Tokenization is no longer theoretical. According to the World Economic Forum, over $16 trillion in assets could be tokenized by 2030. Yet the biggest challenge isn’t blockchain adoption, it’s interoperability.

Financial institutions rely on legacy networks like SWIFT, Euroclear, and DTCC. Replacing those systems outright isn’t feasible. Instead, integration is the path forward and that’s where Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network comes in.

By enabling smart contracts to securely interact with existing financial rails, Chainlink acts as the connective tissue between legacy infrastructure and on-chain ecosystems.

3. Chainlink’s Golden Record Initiative

In 2024, SWIFT, DTCC, Euroclear, SIX, and 24 other major financial institutions partnered with Chainlink to address one of the costliest inefficiencies in finance: corporate action processing.

Each year, fragmented data formats and manual reconciliations across markets result in over $58 billion in wasted operational costs.

Through Chainlink’s Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) and AI orchestration, multiple institutions used large language models (LLMs) to interpret corporate filings and automatically publish a unified, verified “golden record” of data on-chain.

“The future of market infrastructure is data that’s instant, interoperable, and verifiable, powered by oracles and AI.”

4. How CCIP Integrates SWIFT ISO 20022

At the heart of this transformation is Chainlink’s CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol), a universal messaging standard that connects banks, blockchains, and real-world data.

Using ISO 20022-compatible messages, CCIP enables existing payment networks like SWIFT or RBA’s PayTo to trigger smart contracts automatically.

Here’s how it works:

1. A bank sends a SWIFT message for a fund subscription or redemption.
2. Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) receives the message and executes the corresponding smart contract for token issuance or burn.
3. CCIP transmits the settlement instruction to the payment network, synchronizing onchain tokens and offchain fiat in real time.

The result is seamless Delivery-vs-Payment (DvP) and Payment-vs-Payment (PvP) settlements, the long-sought holy grail of financial automation.

5. Institutional Use Cases: UBS, BNP Paribas, and DTCC

• UBS Tokenized Fund (Switzerland): Enabled onchain fund subscriptions using standard SWIFT messages, without altering its core banking systems.
• Reserve Bank of Australia – Project Acacia: Leveraged Chainlink CCIP to link the domestic PayTo payment system with a tokenized asset platform, executing atomic DvP in real time.
• DTCC Pilot: Coordinated 24 institutions using AI + oracles to create synchronized data standards across multiple jurisdictions.

Each of these cases shows that tokenization isn’t replacing financial infrastructure, it’s upgrading it.

6. Future of On-Chain Settlement

SmartCon 2025 represents a turning point: the institutionalization of onchain finance.
With AI, CCIP, and standardized oracles, financial institutions can now operate across both traditional and decentralized systems — safely, transparently, and automatically.

As regulated stablecoins and tokenized treasuries continue to rise, the next chapter is clear:

From SWIFT messages to smart contractsthe institutional bridge is already here.