Citi Institute’s June 2026 report, “Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain,” places interoperability at the center of the next phase of tokenized finance, with Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol cited as part of the infrastructure stack that could help connect fragmented blockchain environments. The report frames tokenization as moving beyond pilots into operational deployment across issuance, trading and settlement, while projecting tokenized asset markets could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030 in its base case, $8.2 trillion in a bull case and $2.7 trillion in a bear case.
Citi Sees Chainlink CCIP as Key Tokenization Rail
Citi’s report identifies public-market securities and liquid collateral as the likely first major wave of tokenization adoption, with U.S. equities, Treasuries and money market funds expected to lead before less liquid private-market assets. That framing is important for infrastructure providers because high-volume tokenized markets require reliable settlement, liquidity movement and cross-network communication rather than isolated issuance alone.
Chainlink highlighted the report’s reference to its interoperability technology in an X post, writing: “JUST IN: Citi’s new Tokenization 2030 report highlights Chainlink CCIP as the interoperability standard connecting the tokenized global financial system. Citi projects tokenized asset markets can reach $8.2 trillion by 2030, with secure cross-chain connectivity being critical.” Citi’s own discussion positions CCIP as one of the open-source standards helping enable secure communications across blockchains, rather than presenting Chainlink as a tokenized asset issuer.
The report also points to ANZ Bank’s 2023 collaboration with Chainlink as an example of how CCIP can connect private, permissioned blockchain environments with public networks such as Ethereum. In Citi’s tokenization thesis, that capability matters because institutional finance is unlikely to consolidate around a single chain; banks, exchanges, custodians, asset managers and public networks are expected to operate across hybrid systems that need common connectivity standards.
Interoperability Takes Center Stage in Citi Report
Citi says financial services firms had adopted at least 72 different distributed or programmable ledgers as of May 2025, creating what the report describes as “digital islands” that are not naturally interoperable. The report argues that this fragmentation can restrict liquidity, increase operational complexity and make seamless cross-network settlement a prerequisite for global tokenized markets.
The report’s broader industry commentary also emphasizes that tokenization is progressing through a gradual infrastructure transition rather than a single migration event. Blue Macellari, Head of Digital Assets Strategy at T. Rowe Price, said: “The transition to tokenized markets is best understood through the E-ZPass tollbooth analogy. We didn’t move to full automation overnight. Parallel systems run first.” That view aligns with Citi’s emphasis on hybrid market structures, where traditional financial rails and blockchain-based systems operate side by side before broader adoption takes hold.
Other contributors in the report describe tokenization as a market-structure shift with operational and regulatory dependencies. Matthew Blumenfeld, Global Digital Assets Lead at PwC, said: “Tokenization is not just a technological upgrade. It’s a change in market structure redesigning access, distribution and transparency.” Germán Soto Sanchez, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Broadridge, added that early institutional proof points are visible in repo and collateral, but broader adoption will depend on liquidity, participation, aligned infrastructure and regulation.
Citi’s report gives Chainlink a clear role in the institutional tokenization discussion as interoperability infrastructure connecting private, permissioned systems with public blockchain networks. The central takeaway is not that tokenization will depend on one protocol or one ledger, but that scaled markets for tokenized securities and collateral will require secure cross-chain connectivity, coordinated liquidity and settlement infrastructure that can function across a fragmented financial technology stack.
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
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