How Chainlink Is Preparing for Trillions in Onchain Finance

In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Liam Karwan, Head of RWAs at Chainlink Labs, to discuss how tokenization is changing global capital markets, what financial institutions need to move assets onchain, and why the next phase of adoption will require more than just blockchain technology. Liam explains how Chainlink connects banks, asset managers, blockchains and DeFi protocols through data infrastructure, cross-chain interoperability and transaction orchestration. They explore why institutions are shifting from blockchain experimentation toward measurable business outcomes, what's holding back institutional-scale liquidity, and how tokenized equities, stablecoins and fintech platforms could accelerate adoption. They also discuss the role of Robinhood, Coinbase and other financial platforms in bringing mainstream users onchain, the difference between wrapped and natively issued tokenized equities, and what it would take for blockchain to support financial markets at a much larger scale. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction  01:16 What Is Tokenization? 01:59 How Tokenization Has Changed in 12 Months 02:24 Chainlink's Role in Onchain Finance 03:13 What Financial Institutions Want From Chainlink 03:33 Why Institutional Conversations Have Changed 04:29 Are Tokenization Projects Succeeding? 04:54 Simple vs. Complex Institutional Use Cases 05:47 The Next Phase of Institutional Adoption 06:08 Private Blockchains, Compliance and Interoperability 07:25 Why Technology Isn't the Biggest Bottleneck 07:47 Making the Business Case for Blockchain 08:20 How Quickly Will Tokenization Scale? 08:37 The $100 Trillion Capital Markets Opportunity 09:05 Why Chainlink Wants to Connect Financial Networks 09:48 Which Institutions Are Adopting RWAs? 10:40 Why Hedge Funds Are Moving More Slowly 11:25 Is Onchain Finance Ready for Wall Street? 12:22 Stablecoins, Liquidity and Yield Opportunities 12:44 Why Fintechs Could Drive Mainstream Adoption 13:26 Will Consumers Know They're Using Blockchain? 14:46 Why Crypto Focused on Infrastructure First 15:45 How Onchain Finance Improves Financial Products 16:31 Institutional Adoption in South Korea 17:26 Why Tokenized Equities Matter 18:14 Are Tokenized Stocks Overhyped? 18:52 Wrapped vs. Native Tokenized Equities 19:37 How the Tokenization Industry Has Evolved 20:44 Why Asset Managers Are Focusing on Distribution 21:10 Chainlink's Long-Term Vision 21:35 What Will Drive the Next Wave of RWA Adoption? 21:54 Fintechs, Stablecoins and New Onchain Demand 🔔 New episodes every week  https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 🌐 Follow Jacquelyn Melinek https://x.com/jacqmelinek?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelynmelinek ➡️  Follow Liam Karwan https://x.com/KarwanLiam05 #Chainlink #Tokenization #RWA #OnchainFinance #TokenizedStocks