Chainlink has launched its 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams, providing continuous, sub-second pricing data for U.S. stocks and ETFs on over 40 blockchains. This marks the first time that the DeFi sector gains access to U.S. equity market data encompassing pre-market, after-hours, and overnight sessions, effectively unlocking the ~$80 trillion U.S. stock market for on-chain activities.
The new Chainlink data streams address the structural challenges arising from the differences between traditional stock market hours and the continuous operation of blockchains. Traditional markets operate during dedicated hours, while blockchain-enabled trading is 24/7/365. The 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams transform fragmented U.S. equity market data into continuous, cryptographically signed data streams, enabling traditional markets to operate on-chain.
These streams deliver more than just a single price point, providing bid-ask data, last trade prices, volumes, market condition flags, and staleness indicators. This comprehensive market context enables more advanced logic, robust risk controls, and safer execution for builders. The data is delivered using the RWA Advanced (v11) schema, which supports 24/5 streams and includes DON Consensus mid price, order book depth, execution data, and granular market phases.
Several platforms are already leveraging Chainlink's 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams, including Lighter, BitMEX, ApeX, HelloTrade, Decibel, Monaco, Opinion Labs, and Orderly Network. These integrations are powering continuous RWA (Real World Asset) markets, including U.S. stock perpetual swaps, prediction markets, synthetic stocks, lending, and structured products.
According to Chainlink, the 24/5 U.S. Equity Streams are designed to bring reliable pricing, safer liquidations, stronger risk management, and consistent user experiences beyond standard trading hours to on-chain markets. By providing continuous pricing coverage, Chainlink eliminates pricing blind spots and reduces risks during off-hours, making it easier to build secure, scalable equity-based financial products on-chain.
The launch of these equities streams follows a milestone-heavy year for Chainlink, during which the protocol collaborated with financial institutions like Swift, Euroclear, J.P. Morgan, Mastercard and UBS on blockchain integration projects. Furthermore, CME Group recently announced plans for LINK futures contracts, potentially signaling increased institutional participation.
Chainlink's 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams mark a significant step toward bringing institutional-grade equity markets on-chain, enabling DeFi protocols to build innovative financial products and services that operate beyond traditional market hours.
