Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, expects the stock market to move increasingly onchain. He made the prediction during a panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks in the US Federal Reserve System, on September 25, 2026.

Nazarov said the amount of tokenized equity will increase substantially as onchain markets expand. He based his view in part on a recent regulatory development: the SEC’s Innovation Exemption, a framework approved shortly before his remarks. The SEC is the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal regulator of the country’s securities markets.

What the Innovation Exemption does

The Innovation Exemption is a five-year framework that permits the onchain trading of tokenized US equities, establishing a defined window in which that trading can operate under US securities rules.

A tokenized equity is a stock share represented as a blockchain token. Rather than being recorded solely in a brokerage’s internal ledger, ownership is recorded on a shared digital network that can, in theory, settle trades in real time.

Nazarov said the exemption could catalyze a significant shift toward onchain trading and help create more formal, real-time and efficient market infrastructure. He also emphasized that the US equities market represents the majority of the global financial system’s equity value and flow. In his view, that market needs the technological transition to maintain its leadership position worldwide.

A recurring argument

The Philadelphia Fed panel was not an isolated appearance. In recent months, Nazarov has presented a similar argument at several high-profile events.

At an August 2026 roundtable connected to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US agency that regulates derivatives markets, including through his involvement with the agency’s Innovation Advisory Committee, he said that tokenizing equities could create significant value onchain.

At Sibos 2026, the annual banking and payments conference organized by SWIFT, Nazarov discussed how tokenization systems could support AI agents participating in trading processes.

Across these appearances, Nazarov has identified three main benefits of tokenization:

• Improved liquidity: Assets could be bought and sold more easily.
• Lower compliance costs: Rules could be built directly into the infrastructure.
• Around-the-clock trading: Onchain markets could remove the constraint of traditional market hours.

Chainlink’s role

Chainlink develops infrastructure that tokenized markets could use, operating as an oracle network that connects blockchains with external data and systems. The company has implemented two key products for tokenized-equity applications.

The first, Data Feeds, supplies external information, including prices, to blockchains. The second, the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, allows different blockchains to communicate and move assets between them.

Chainlink has applied these tools to processes including corporate actions and settlement operations. Corporate actions include events such as dividend payments and stock splits. According to the research summary, the products are already helping pave the way for institutional adoption by streamlining those back-office processes.

Source: CryptoBriefing