Zach Rynes | CLG

Strategic Initiatives @Chainlink | Digital commodity enjoyer | Opinions are my own

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

Most people's mental model of Chainlink $LINK is completely wrong

Here's why👇

People often think of oracles as simple middleware bolted to the side of a blockchain, simply injecting price data

In their mind, Chainlink is "just an oracle" so who cares right?

A more complete mental model is that Chainlink is the global orchestration layer that sits above and across all blockchains and external systems

A unified platform that enables organizations to create advanced business workflows spanning any number of blockchains, legacy systems, and oracle services, all powered by a decentralized runtime environment

This matters now more than ever because we are entering a Cambrian explosion of blockchains of all kinds (public & private, L1 & L2, DeFi & TradFi, EVM & non-EVM)

The cost and friction of launching a new blockchain network has never been lower

And what we have seen historically is that in order for a blockchain to be successful, it needs critical oracle services:

- Data oracles: DeFi needs market data to secure lending and derivatives, while TradFi needs NAV data for tokenized funds and corporate actions data for tokenized equities. Proof of Reserve provides public visibility into the reserves backing tokenized assets

- Cross-chain oracles: Digital assets in both DeFi and TradFi need to be securely transferable across any public or private blockchain to access a greater pool of buyers, minimizing liquidity fragmentation and enabling advanced settlement workflows

- Compliance oracles: Regulated tokenized assets need to comply with various regulations and internal business logic rules around identity verification and risk management to become adopted by institutions

- Privacy oracles: Sensitive information needs to be made accessible to blockchain apps without revealing the underlying data, while private chains need to connect to public chains while only selectively revealing what is needed to complete transactions

- Legacy-system oracles: Institutions want to access public and private blockchains using their existing infrastructure and messaging standards (Swift, FIX, DTCC) through a single integration gateway rather than manually integrating with thousands of chains individually

- Orchestration oracles: Institutions need to be able to coordinate complex business workflows that span multiple blockchains, legacy systems, and oracle services through a simple API gateway

Chainlink is the only unified platform that provides all of these solutions in a single offering, minimizing trust-assumptions and eliminating the complexity of using a patchwork of service providers

This is how institutions adopt blockchains, not by betting on specific chains, but integrating with a unified platform that provides them access to any public or private chain

While blockchains fiercely compete amongst each other to become the transactional database layer, Chainlink wins regardless of which chains are used

For Chainlink, every new blockchain introduced to market is all the more justification for why organizations need a global orchestration layer to manage the complexity

Financial market infrastructures like Swift, DTCC, and Euroclear understand this, which is why they have adopted Chainlink alongside J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Central Bank of Brazil, UBS, SBI, Fidelity International, ANZ, and many others

In addition to powering the DeFi economy (70%+ marketshare globally, 80%+ on Ethereum, and 90%+ on L2s), Chainlink directly monetizes the integration and deployment of its services on blockchains via the Scale program and enterprise deals

Onchain revenue from the usage of Chainlink services, as well as offchain revenue from Scale and enterprise deals, directly fuel $LINK token buybacks which grow the Chainlink Reserve

Chainlink services have already enabled $28+ trillion in transaction value across 77+ blockchain networks via 2,000+ oracle networks used by 500+ applications, with more public and private blockchains regularly integrated all the time

Today, developers build on blockchains and plug into Chainlink

In the future, developers will build on Chainlink and plug into blockchains

The result is straight forward:

More blockchains
↓
More Chainlink adoption
↓
More onchain & offchain revenue
↓
More $LINK token buybacks
↓
Chainlink's dominance compounds

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@ChainLinkTime @Chainlinkto10k What is the goal with just making things up like this

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

It’s unfortunate that the token vs equity split issue still exists in 2026

When you sell/distribute both equity and tokens to investors, you create two competing set of stakeholders with unclear boundaries of value accrual

It’s hard to expert serious capital to allocate to crypto tokens when this is still such a major unresolved headwind for our industry

Primary issue is that equity investors have clear legally defined economic rights, combined with disclosure obligations, while token holders today sit in a more uncertain position due to lack of relevant legislation/regulation

Clarity Act should help here, but companies who chose to double dip and sell/distribute both tokens and equity today are establishing a very confusing capital structure

This is a common problem for many tokens btw, I make no qualitative claim of the underlying product itself here, Veince seems cool and has real PMF, much respect to Erik

And before anyone asks, no, CLL did not sell equity to investors, the LINK token is the only investable asset to get exposure to the success of Chainlink

CLL employees do not get equity, but rather have long-term incentives tied to LINK, incentives are aligned around the one asset

[Erik Voorhees @ErikVoorhees]

VVV and Capital

Measured by revenue, Venice has become the largest company at the intersection of AI and cryptoeconomics.

Today, we announced Venice’s first round of outside capital, a $65m Series A led by @dragonfly_xyz, valuing Venice’s equity at $1 billion.

Since we are an atypical company, this thread describes how this equity raise relates to the most valuable asset we have on our balance sheet, our capital token base:0xacfe6019ed1a7dc6f7b508c02d1b04ec88cc21bf

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@Palatineoffacts No, anyone saying otherwise is spinning a story

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@Casemills2 @danegeldcap I’ve provided my perspective on this topic probably 1000 times by now

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@kunalgoel @WLFI_Intern @canikizu @RobinhoodCrypto I genuinely don’t know how I can make my point any more clear than I already have, enjoy the evening ser

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@kunalgoel @WLFI_Intern @canikizu @RobinhoodCrypto You’re not serious are you?

Your tweet: “It all goes through LayerZero @RobinhoodCrypto”

Reality: Robinhood chose CCIP as their official cross-chain solution for all Robinhood issued assets, including Stock Tokens

Very weird hill to die on, and not a very good attempt either

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@kunalgoel @WLFI_Intern @canikizu @RobinhoodCrypto You posted a misleading tweet, I provided a correction/context

You don’t get to publish misinfo and then call people defensive for correcting you

What is with LZ folks and the constant never ending gaslighting?

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@danegeldcap I am going to tweet about topics I am interested in talking about, you are free to follow or unfollow me

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@WLFI_Intern @canikizu @kunalgoel @RobinhoodCrypto No, you just don't understand what the docs are showing you, it's a list of examples of who has deployed on the chain

Literally right under the table in the docs, that Kunal cropped out in his screenshot

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@PreWealthy @canikizu @kunalgoel @RobinhoodCrypto From Chainlink's perspective, bridges are simply cross-chain oracle networks

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@shoolian @_M4ND0 @linkfew @RobinhoodApp @chainlink This guy knows

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

🔥 NEW: @RobinhoodApp adopts Chainlink as its official data & cross-chain oracle for the Robinhood Chain

Live on day-1, @Chainlink is now powering Robinhood Chain & all Robinhood-issued assets, including Stock Tokens like $NVDA, $GOOG, $AAPL, and more

The strategic integration includes:

⛓️ CCIP
⚡️ Data Streams
📊 Data Feeds

These services deliver verifiable data for tokenized RWAs and unlock secure interoperability across the multi-chain ecosystem

The future of finance is onchain, and its powered by Chainlink 🤝

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@canikizu @kunalgoel @RobinhoodCrypto You are factually incorrect

LayerZero is one of the many bridges that deployed to Robinhood Chain

Chainlink is the official data and cross-chain oracle powering all Robinhood-issued assets, including Stock Tokens

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

You don't think the announcements Chainlink makes are thoroughly reviewed by partners? Esp when with a publicly traded company?

Every minute detail is reviewed, down to each word and the color scheme used in the animation video

There is no ambiguity here, LayerZero deployed to a chain, just any bridge can deploy to a chain

Robinhood chose Chainlink as its official data and cross-chain oracle solution for all Robinhood-issued assets including Stock Tokens

"Robinhood Crypto is building the foundation for the future of investing by delivering secure access to all of our financial products directly onchain, through Robinhood Chain. We chose Chainlink as the oracle provider for Robinhood Chain because its institutional-grade security and reliability are already trusted by the world's largest financial institutions to scale onchain ecosystems." — Gaëtan Thabot, Director of Product, Robinhood Crypto

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@_M4ND0 @linkfew @RobinhoodApp @chainlink LayerZero is live on the chain, just as any bridge can deploy on a chain

But Robinhood chose Chainlink as their official data and cross-chain oracle solution for all Robinhood-issued assets like Stock Tokens

https://t.co/ARTuNEA34a

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@HumbleDegan @chainlink @RobinhoodCrypto What is there to comment on exactly? Robinhood chose Chainlink CCIP to power their Stock Tokens

LayerZero just also happens to be live on the same chain, just as any bridge can deploy to any chain

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@Nomaticcap @ErikVoorhees @thedefivillain Indeed, token holders regularly get screwed in M&A / acquihire deals

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@BullNakedCrypto @RobinhoodApp @chainlink 1. Global non-U.S. distribution
2. Cheaper/faster collateral management
3. Enhanced programability / DeFi composability

The target audience here is not their existing US customers

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

@RobinhoodApp LFG 🤝

[Zach Rynes | CLG @ChainLinkGod]

Read the full announcement 👇
https://t.co/ARTuNEA34a