Chainlink Shatters Wall Street Hours: U.S. Equities Now Trade 24/7 On-Chain

Forget 9-to-5—the stock market just went infinite.

Chainlink, the decentralized oracle network that feeds real-world data to blockchains, just flipped the script on traditional finance. Its latest integration doesn't just bridge data; it unlocks a parallel, always-open trading universe for U.S. equities directly on-chain. This isn't another synthetic asset play—it's live price feeds for real stocks, powering decentralized markets that never close, never take a holiday, and never ask for a bailout.

The Oracle That Ate Wall Street

The magic lies in the oracles. Chainlink's infrastructure now pulls verified price data for major U.S. stocks and pipes it directly into smart contracts. This reliable, tamper-proof data feed is the bedrock. It lets developers build everything from perpetual futures and options to complex structured products—all denominated in the actual underlying equities, all operating on crypto's relentless schedule.

Suddenly, a trader in Tokyo can react to after-hours news on a Tuesday night. A protocol can automate a hedge at 3 a.m. Sunday. The concept of 'market hours' becomes a quaint relic, like a ticker tape or a human floor trader yelling themselves hoarse.

Cutting Out the Middleman (and His Commission)

This move bypasses the entire legacy settlement stack—the clearinghouses, the custodians, the layers of intermediaries each taking their clip. Trades settle peer-to-peer via smart contracts. It's a direct challenge to the centralized gatekeepers who've long profited from controlling access and information. The efficiency is brutal; the old guard's 2-3 day settlement cycle looks positively glacial.

The New Market Makers

Liquidity won't come from Wall Street's usual suspects—at least not at first. It'll be seeded by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), liquidity pools, and algorithmic market-making bots competing in a purely code-driven environment. The playing field isn't just leveled; it's been reprogrammed.

The promise is a system that's more transparent, more accessible, and radically more efficient. The risk? Well, it's the wild west of finance, where a bug could be costlier than a bad Fed decision and 'asset-backed' relies on the immutable logic of a contract rather than the shaky promise of a bank—which, given recent history, might not be the worst trade. After all, trusting code over bankers is the ultimate cynical finance jab.

One thing's certain: the closing bell just lost its meaning. The market is open. Permanently.

Equity RWAs have lagged on-chain

U.S. equities are underrepresented on-chain despite the growth of real-world assets (RWAs).

Blockchains operate nonstop. But U.S. equity markets function in fixed daily sessions, typically from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET on weekdays.

Most on-chain data solutions offer only one price point for equities during regular trading hours. Outside those windows, on-chain markets lack reliable equity pricing.

This limitation prevents on-chain markets from accurately reflecting market conditions around the clock. 

Chainlink delivers continuous equity data on-chain

Chainlink developed its U.S. Equities Streams to solve this mismatch. 

The service converts fragmented U.S. equity market data into continuous, cryptographically signed data streams. It offers continuous 24/5 coverage and provides reliable sub-second pricing around the clock. This includes regular, pre-market, post-market, and overnight sessions

Chainlink’s service removes blind spots during off-hours trading. It also reduces the risk of using outdated reference prices. 

The streams also provide a full set of market data designed for financial applications. They also include bid-ask information, last trade prices, volumes, market-status flags, and staleness indicators.

The detailed data offers the market context necessary for advanced logic, strong risk controls, and safer trade execution. It also supports safer liquidations and more consistent user experiences outside regular market hours.

Exchanges adopt Chainlink streams

Several industry players have already integrated the new system. Early adopters include Lighter, BitMEX, ApeX, HelloTrade, Decibel, Monaco, Opinion Labs, and Orderly Network.

Lighter, the second-largest perpetuals DEX by volume, has expanded its partnership with Chainlink by adopting the streams as its official oracle for RWA markets. 

Also, Chainlink’s 24/5 U.S. equities streams play a vital role in BitMEX’s advanced 24/7 equity derivatives platform.

The 24/5 streams operate on the reliable Chainlink Data Standard. This technology has supported +$27 trillion in transaction value and verified +19 billion on-chain messages. It also protects roughly 70% of oracle-related DeFi activities.

According to CoinGecko data, LINK is currently trading at $12.59. The native token of the Chainlink network is up by 2.8% in the last 24 hours.

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