On a recent episode of the Real Vision podcast, Andrew McCormick, Head of Institutional and Market Development at Chainlink Labs, sat down with Ash Bennington to discuss how better regulatory clarity and Chainlink’s growing technology stack unlock a future where tokenized assets and 24/7 trading transform how investors interact with global markets.
“It’s actually happening,” McCormick said.
“It’s hard to believe, especially when you think about where we were three, four, five years ago when it was scary to innovate.”
He said the GENIUS Act, which established the first federal guardrails for US dollar-pegged stablecoins, changed the game when it was signed into law last year.
“It’s not a surprise that since then we’ve seen the increase in adoption of stablecoins.”
Earlier this month, a consortium of 21 major global financial institutions, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, and Wells Fargo, announced plans to issue a US dollar-pegged stablecoin next year.
“That doesn’t happen without the GENIUS Act,” McCormick said.
A 2025 White House Digital Asset Report highlights Chainlink as a key infrastructure provider advancing stablecoin and tokenized real-world asset innovation in the United States. After more than 15 years in traditional finance, with roles at Morgan Stanley, E*Trade, and eToro, McCormick is most excited about Chainlink’s capacity to unlock 24/7 onchain equities trading.
“We’ve seen a big explosion of stablecoins because there’s true product market fit. There’s a use case there. You have regulation there. To me, the next wave will be tokenized equities.”
Chainlink already underpins onchain equities and commodities markets through Data Streams, which provide 24/5 U.S. equity and ETF market data and power GMX’s 24/7 onchain perp markets for gold and silver as well as oil and natural gas.
In addition to 24/7 global access, McCormick said tokenized equities give investors more freedom, flexibility, and control.
“Tokenized equities can really open not just days of the week and hours of the day, but international markets in a new way.”
He envisions a future where programmatic smart contracts enable cross-border, peer-to-peer trading so seamless and efficient that two friends could directly trade stocks between each other – from across the table or across the world.
As the industry moves closer toward making this vision a reality, Chainlink has evolved from providing onchain data to setting the standard for cross-chain interoperability, automation, privacy, compliance, orchestration, and proof of reserves. Together, these services are the foundation for tokenizing $867 trillion worth of assets onchain.
“Oracles is where we started – that’s a key pillar of what we do and will forever do, but we’re certainly growing a lot from there.”
Watch the full interview.