FTSE Russell Takes First Step Toward On-Chain Benchmark Data With Chainlink

FTSE Russell, a global index and data provider, publishes for the first time its market index data on blockchain networks through Chainlink, a decentralized oracle service widely used in financial and blockchain applications.

Equity indices, FX, and digital asset benchmarks will be published on multiple blockchains via DataLink, a Chainlink service that connects traditional financial data to more than 2,000 applications in more than 50 networks.

Bringing index data on-chain through Chainlink’s infrastructure would help “securely distribute the underlying data” from FTSE Russell’s benchmarks and give reliable quality data “that feeds traditional finance” to institutions and developers, Fiona Bassett, CEO of FTSE Russell, said in a declaration on Monday

The integration makes the FTSE Russell global index available continuously on the chain, allowing developers to safely reference and use it across multiple chains and networks.

Publishing data on the chain “transforms traditional benchmarks into programmable and verifiable financial primitives,” Ram Kumar, core contributor at blockchain infrastructure firm OpenLedger, said. Decrypt.

It’s a collaboration that “merges TradFi standards with DeFi infrastructure,” making “canonical benchmarks available natively,” while helping to “bring institutional legitimacy” to on-chain finance, Kumar explained.

How do blockchain oracles work with indexes?

Oracles act as data bridges between blockchains and the outside world, feeding information that smart contracts cannot access on their own.

Each oracle network collects data from trusted sources, verifies it through multiple independent nodes, and provides a cryptographically signed record on the chain. The process ensures accuracy and transparency without relying on a single intermediary.

It also allows institutions and users to rely on the same verified market data for trading, investing or building financial products directly on blocked networks.

Chainlink’s oracle framework extends this model to institutional data, standardizing how such data, including prices and index values, are verified and shared on the chain, allowing financial contracts to use real-world information securely.

Meanwhile, the FTSE indices serve as key benchmarks for global equity and asset performance, often determining which stocks or companies are included in meaningful investment portfolios.

Having these on-chain data sets allows institutions to “launch tokenized index products and structured notes with on-chain real-time price feeds backed by an $18 trillion trusted benchmark provider,” Kumar added.

Developers, meanwhile, would have access “to deterministic, high-integrity data for building vaults, options, or autonomous index tracking agents that rebalance to benchmark movements,” which could help enable “auditable risk management,” he said.

In September, Chainlink sought to expand its government and public sector partnerships under the Trump administration, exploring ways to bring more agency data and the verification processes on the chain.