Chainlink Brings FTSE Russell Indices On-Chain in Landmark Collaboration

FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, is one of the world’s most recognized index providers, with more than $18 trillion in assets benchmarked to its indices. Its flagship benchmarks, such as the FTSE 100, Russell 2000, and WMR FX benchmarks, underpin the performance measurement of major markets, funds, and exchange-traded products worldwide. Through this collaboration, those benchmarks will now be securely published on-chain across Chainlink’s decentralized infrastructure, enabling global access by developers, financial institutions, and blockchain-based applications.

FTSE Russell’s Chief Executive Fiona Bassett said, "We're excited to bring our index data onchain using Chainlink's institutional-grade infrastructure. This marks a major step in enabling innovation around tokenized assets, ETFs, and next-generation financial products. DataLink allows FTSE Russell to securely distribute underlying data of some of our most trusted benchmarks across global onchain markets, giving institutions and developers the same high-quality data that powers traditional finance."

Bringing established benchmark data on-chain has long been a missing piece in the infrastructure needed for regulated tokenized markets to scale. Financial products built on blockchain, including tokenized funds, synthetic assets, or decentralized derivatives rely on external data feeds to ensure accuracy and compliance. Most such feeds up until recently have been compiled by third-party aggregators, not by the official benchmark providers themselves.

By integrating data from FTSE Russell directly via Chainlink DataLink, this cooperation introduces a verifiable, tamper-resistant pathway for financial benchmarks to reach decentralized environments. This could allow for entirely new categories of blockchain-based instruments that mirror traditional markets, such as tokenized portfolios tracking the FTSE 100 or Russell 3000, or smart-contract derivatives settled against global equity or FX indices.

This will make the data available 24/7 on-chain, across a variety of both public and private blockchains, and enable on-chain applications to refer to official benchmarks in real time. That's constant availability in line with blockchain's 24/7 nature and unlike traditional finance, bound by market hours and intermediated clearing systems. For FTSE Russell, the integration marks a broader strategy to modernize its distribution model, while maintaining governance and provenance controls. By making its data interoperable with decentralized systems, the firm positions itself at the heart of a financial landscape in which increasingly tokenized instruments, stablecoins, and digital bonds depend upon trusted market references.

For Chainlink, the collaboration further cements its expanding role as the infrastructure layer that bridges the gap between off-chain data and on-chain systems. Chainlink DataLink extends the company's renowned oracle technology-already securing tens of billions of dollars in decentralized finance-into a fully institutional setting in which compliance, auditability, and standardization are paramount.

This deal marks the latest in a series of collaborations by Chainlink with global market data companies and financial institutions to integrate legacy datasets into blockchain ecosystems. With each partnership, the range of real-world data that can securely inform smart contracts widens, enabling automated systems to execute based on verified market conditions rather than proxied or delayed inputs.

Making FTSE Russell’s benchmarks natively available on-chain could accelerate the next generation of financial products built on distributed-ledger infrastructure. Asset managers and fintech firms can now design tokenized funds or derivatives whose performance tracks official indices with the same integrity as their traditional counterparts. Meanwhile, developers and enterprises experimenting with tokenized assets, from bonds and ETFs to FX products, gain direct access to data validated by one of the most trusted names in global finance.

This convergence also serves a regulatory purpose. As authorities worldwide refine rules around digital assets and benchmarks, embedding institutional-grade data sources into blockchain workflows provides greater transparency and auditability. It ensures that pricing, performance, and settlement logic within smart contracts can be traced back to recognized benchmarks governed by established methodologies. The collaboration underscores a wider shift underway across financial infrastructure: established data providers are beginning to enter the blockchain space directly rather than relying on intermediaries. The use of decentralized oracles to publish high-integrity financial data creates the foundation for a more interconnected system where tokenized and traditional markets coexist.

Market participants view such developments as early building blocks for a fully digital financial ecosystem, one where the same indices that guide institutional portfolios could simultaneously power automated on-chain instruments, decentralized prediction markets, or tokenized wealth platforms. However, the transformation will not happen overnight. Integrating trusted benchmarks into blockchain systems is a necessary step, but it must be accompanied by progress in custody, settlement, compliance, and cross-chain interoperability. The success of these integrations will ultimately depend on institutional adoption and consistent governance standards.

The Chainlink–FTSE Russell collaboration demonstrates how traditional financial institutions can directly participate in Web3 innovation without compromising data integrity. By distributing benchmark indices via DataLink, FTSE Russell extends its trusted data infrastructure into the digital-asset domain, while Chainlink cements its role as a bridge between the two worlds. It is a development that symbolizes more than just data delivery: it represents the start of a future where global markets, both centralized and decentralized, rely on the same transparent and verifiable sources of truth. As financial technology continues to evolve, this kind of integration could define how institutional capital interacts with blockchain ecosystems in the years ahead.