Polygon founder hails Chainlink’s integration as "new era for DeFi"

Polygon and Chainlink are poised to take the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem to the next level, with this outlook strengthened by the two blockchain network’s integration. This is the overall take of Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal.

In statement he shared via X on Friday, Nailwal pointed to the launch of Chainlink Data Feeds on Polygon zkEVM, an EVM-compatible zero knowledge (ZK) scaling solution, as “the start of a new era.”

His comments followed Polygon’s announcement on December 14 that the Chainlink Data Feeds are live on the Polygon zkEVM network.

"A game-changer for DeFi"

According to Polygon, developers can tap into the available external price data to build and deploy advanced DeFi applications, decentralised exchanges (DEXs) and other products. Chainlink’s data solution, Ethereum’s robust security, Polygon's ecosystem (including its zkEVM and Supernets appchains) puts DeFi on course for a new leap.

Chainlink Data Feeds allows for smart contracts integration with real-world data, including prices, asset reserves, and NFT floor prices among others. With data feeds on Polygon zkEVM, developer opportunities on the platform could see trillions of dollars in tokenized real world assets (RWAs) move on-chain.

In particular, Nailwal sees one of the biggest catalyst being the increased integration and leveraging of the Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). The interoperability protocol, which connects blockchains and bank chains, has widely been integrated since its launch on Chainlink mainnet in July.

Supported chains include Avalanche, Ethereum, and Optimism as well across multiple DeFi protocols and global financial institutions. Market observes says CCIP puts Chainlink at the forefront of the growth across the tokenization market.

The DeFi sector is seeing a resurgence in activity following a brutal bear market, with total value locked (TVL) on different chains and protocols hitting $50 billion again.