PANews reported on August 25th that SBI Group (SBI) and Chainlink announced a strategic partnership today to accelerate global adoption of blockchain and digital assets. Japan, with its mature financial markets and rapidly developing digital asset ecosystem, provides an ideal environment for launching and validating initial use cases. This strategic partnership combines SBI's deep market expertise with Chainlink's secure and reliable data and interoperability infrastructure, which is favored by leading financial institutions and DeFi applications worldwide.

The strategic partnership between SBI and Chainlink will focus on enabling a number of key use cases for financial institutions in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. These include cross-chain integration of real-world tokenized assets such as real estate and bonds, as well as integration with the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) , which enables secure transactions across any blockchain while ensuring compliance and privacy. Furthermore, CCIP and Chainlink SmartData will be integrated to transmit net asset value (NAV) data for tokenized funds on-chain, injecting liquidity into the ecosystem and improving operational efficiency. The partnership will also utilize Chainlink CCIP to enable peer-to-peer settlement for foreign exchange and cross-border transactions, and Chainlink Proof of Reserves to provide transparent on-chain verification of stablecoin reserves.

The SBI team and Chainlink already have a successful collaboration. Previously, Chainlink, UBS Asset Management, and SBI Digital Markets (SBI Holdings’ Singapore subsidiary) completed a project using smart contracts to automate fund management and transfer agent operations within the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Guardian Program.