Chainlink has launched “APAC Equity Streams,” enabling stock price data for major listed companies in South Korea and Japan to be used directly on blockchain networks. The move is seen as targeting the expansion of tokenised equities and the onchain derivatives market.

On June 22 local time, blockchain outlet The Defiant reported that Chainlink unveiled a new oracle service providing onchain stock prices for major Asian companies including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toyota, Sony and SoftBank.

Chainlink announced the APAC Equity Streams launch on its official X account. Developers can use the price data to build onchain financial products and trading markets.

Chainlink cited use cases including perpetual stock futures, spot markets, prediction markets, structured financial products and risk management strategies. The company explained that reliable real-time price data is key infrastructure for moving global stock markets onchain.

A key feature of the service is that it provides stock price data aligned with Asian trading hours. Until now, the tokenised equities market has grown around U.S. stocks, and onchain data infrastructure for using Asian company stock prices has been relatively limited.

If real-time onchain price feeds are provided for companies such as Samsung Electronics and Toyota, developers can design derivatives and prediction markets based on Asian companies as underlying assets without relying on U.S. market data.

For now, coverage is limited to the South Korean and Japanese markets. Chainlink said it is preparing support for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but did not disclose a specific timeline.

Chainlink did not disclose business performance metrics such as trading volume, expected revenue or the number of supported assets. Instead, it stressed that APAC Equity Streams is a starting point for expanding the real-world asset (RWA) market.

The service also aligns with Chainlink’s strategy of targeting institutional financial markets. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a U.S. securities post-trade services provider, has recently adopted Chainlink as the data layer for a tokenised collateral platform that operates 24 hours a day.

The tokenised equities market is also growing quickly. The industry has assessed tokenised stocks as one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the Ethereum ecosystem. However, the market is currently centred on U.S. bellwethers such as Nvidia, Apple and Tesla.

NEW LAUNCH: Chainlink APAC Equities Streams are now live, starting with Japan and Korea. Developers can now build onchain markets powered by fast, secure data around the largest companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Samsung, SK Hynix, Toyota, Sony, SoftBank, & more pic.twitter.com/uINa1373oa

As a result, the industry is watching whether Chainlink’s APAC Equity Streams will lead to actual adoption. Key points to watch include how quickly onchain financial products using Asian bellwethers such as Samsung Electronics and Toyota emerge, and whether the service can expand its scope to include the China and Hong Kong markets.