Rapid Addition and Chainlink To Build FIX-Native Blockchain Adapter for Institutional Digital Asset Trading

This new development will allow banks and other financial institutions to deliver messages and interact with a broad spectrum of tokenized assets

SAN FRANCISCO, May 1, 2024 — Rapid Addition, an acclaimed FIX connectivity solutions provider, and Chainlink—the essential infrastructure for the tokenized asset economy—have announced today the development of a FIX-native blockchain adapter for institutional digital asset trading powered by Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

Rapid Addition is an acclaimed FIX connectivity solutions provider within financial markets. Chainlink is the industry standard platform for onchain data, cross-chain interoperability, and blockchain abstraction. This new collaboration will allow banks and other financial institutions to deliver messages and interact with a broad spectrum of tokenized assets—an untapped market opportunity spanning carbon credits and renewable energy products to real-world assets such as real estate, infrastructure, and collectibles. 

Rapid Addition, with its network of FIX-enabled users and solutions, is at the forefront of innovation in the FIX connectivity space. “Working with Chainlink on this new capability means our clients will benefit from seamless and secure integration into blockchain-based platforms without the need to duplicate systems and controls,” explained Mike Powell, CEO of Rapid Addition. “Our users require access to liquidity and post-trade services regardless of the underlying technology. As a result of this collaboration with Chainlink, financial institutions will be able to leverage their existing trading infrastructure to enter the new era of digital assets.”

Originally developed by the industry for the industry, FIX has been underpinning financial transaction communication for over 30 years. Its message formats align with global regulation across the whole spectrum of market data and pre- and post-trade transactions, and when used in combination with Chainlink to support message flows onto and across blockchains, FIX can fast-track interoperability with classic systems, as well as offer a compliant schema for the communication of financial market transactions over blockchain networks.

Jim Kaye, Executive Director of FIX Trading Community, highlighted the important role of the FIX technology committee, adding: “We’re delighted to see the adoption of the valuable work FIX has recently begun in the digital asset space. Chainlink and Rapid Addition are key to these initiatives as new trading models and technologies emerge.” 

As the convergence of the onchain and traditional finance worlds has accelerated, bringing new efficiencies and enhanced liquidity to established centralized markets, the ability to communicate between investment banks’ and brokers’ centralized risk and settlement systems and new blockchain-based platforms is more critical than ever. 

By utilizing the initial recommendations of FIX’s recently launched digital assets and technology committee, our initial designs have shown that the combination of Chainlink CCIP’s blockchain abstraction APIs and Rapid Addition’s platform into an institutional blockchain adapter make it possible to seamlessly and securely connect FIX’s widely-used industry protocols to smart contracts, unlocking new possibilities for digital asset trading.

“The key to institutional adoption of these new asset types lies in the effective interoperability between traditional systems and blockchain technology, which is why we’re so excited to announce this partnership between Rapid Addition and Chainlink,” said Vince Turcotte, Business Development Lead, Asia Pacific for Chainlink Labs. “Combining Chainlink CCIP with Rapid Addition’s FIX platform lowers the technical barriers of entry to new trading venues, buy-side participants, and brokers for digital assets.”

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About Rapid Addition

An early pioneer in the development of advanced electronic trading technology, Rapid Addition is recognised as a market leader in financial messaging protocols and scalable middleware. Our asset class- and protocol-agnostic platform provides a foundational building block for firms to design trading capabilities unique to their requirements.

Architected to accelerate the deployment of customer-defined business logic and IP, the RA Platform gives financial organisations the freedom to implement a broad spectrum of dynamic workflows through our low-code development framework. Whether on-prem or in the cloud, Rapid Addition’s open platform is fully interoperable with the customer’s wider technology ecosystem, supporting future business strategy in whichever direction it may take.

About Chainlink

Chainlink is essential infrastructure for the tokenized asset economy, enabling financial institutions to develop customized, compliant, and future-proof blockchain applications. Chainlink powers tokenized assets throughout their entire lifecycle, enriching them with real-world data (e.g., NAV, AML/KYC, proof of reserves), providing secure interoperability between any private or public blockchain to increase liquidity, and synchronizing asset data between blockchains and existing systems to maintain a unified golden record.

Chainlink has securely enabled over $10 trillion in transaction value and delivered more than 12 billion onchain data points across the blockchain ecosystem. Major financial market infrastructures and institutional banks such as Swift, ANZ, and many others have collaborated with Chainlink to successfully demonstrate how financial institutions can use existing infrastructure and messaging standards to interact with tokenized assets across any blockchain.