How oracles are bringing RWAs to crypto, with Pyth and Chronicle

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  January 19, 2026 at 17:41  |  47:22  |  The Block
Speakers
Mike Cahill — Pyth
Nicholas Kunkel — CEO of Chronicle

Summary

Tim Copeland and Kelvin Sparks interview Mike Cahill of Pyth and Niklas Kunkel of Chronicle about how oracles are evolving from price feeds into infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets. They discuss RWA growth, tokenized money market funds, CLOs and private credit, tokenized equities, stablecoin payment rails, corporate chains, and Pyth's subscription data and buyback model. Both guests expect continued institutional adoption and 2026 growth in tokenized assets.

  • Oracles are shifting from simple price feeds to broader data and metadata infrastructure for tokenized assets.
  • Tokenized money market funds bootstrapped RWA adoption, but falling rates may drive rotation into tokenized CLOs and private credit.
  • Tokenized equities remain early but are expected to see bigger adoption in 2026.
  • Stablecoins are seen becoming default payment rails, pressuring traditional payment processors.
  • Corporate and stablecoin-focused chains are debated, with specialists seen as potentially viable but not dominant.
  • Pyth highlighted Pyth Pro's subscription data business, $1M ARR, and DAO buybacks of PYTH.
  • Chronicle reported scaling its tokenized-fund oracle to nearly $6B and expects tokenized funds to outgrow DeFi.
  • Institutions are described as chain-agnostic, favoring infrastructure that supports multiple chains.
Ideas
Mike Cahill Pyth 4:33
Tokenized equities set for 2026 growth
Tokenized equities are moving beyond experimentation: volumes are improving on real-world assets, platforms like Backed, Ono, Superstate, and Trade XYZ on HIP-3 are trading tokenized equities, and Pyth expects a much bigger explosion in 2026 as on-chain and off-chain market structure stitches together and global accessibility improves.
Tokenized Equities HIGH
Mike Cahill Pyth 5:17
RWAs set for 2026 breakout
Mike says Pyth was built on the hypothesis that people will want prices of equities and other real-world assets on-chain; after a hostile and uncertain regulatory period, 2025 has become a breakout for RWAs, with on-chain and off-chain markets stitching together, improving volumes, and he expects a much bigger explosion in 2026.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) HIGH
Mike Cahill Pyth 8:31
Pyth leads oracle market share
Pyth Pro, a subscription data business, reached $1M ARR within weeks, with $5k/month and $10k/month plans and 80+ APIs; revenues from subscriptions, cross-chain updates, listings, and entropy go to the DAO, which buys PYTH monthly using one-third of its budget, creating a clear supply-reduction flywheel from data sales.
PYTH HIGH
Nicholas Kunkel CEO of Chronicle 13:40
Oracles become RWA integration glue
The oracle archetype changed in 2025: tokenized assets require contextual metadata beyond price feeds, so oracles are no longer just singular price infrastructure but the glue between on-chain and off-chain data. This expands the data business and makes oracles critical infrastructure for integrating RWAs into DeFi.
Oracle networks HIGH
Nicholas Kunkel CEO of Chronicle 15:59
Rates drive rotation into tokenized CLOs
Tokenized money market funds bootstrapped tokenized asset adoption while rates were high, but with policy rates falling, capital is expected to rotate out of tokenized MMFs into higher-yielding, less liquid, more structured products; tokenized CLOs and private credit are being launched in anticipation and will take the lion's share of growth next year, with DeFi protocols and protocol treasuries allocating in size and institutions remaining chain-agnostic.
Tokenized CLOs Tokenized private credit HIGH
Nicholas Kunkel CEO of Chronicle 15:59
Rates drive rotation into tokenized CLOs
Tokenized money market funds bootstrapped tokenized asset adoption while rates were high, but with policy rates falling, capital is expected to rotate out of tokenized MMFs into higher-yielding, less liquid, more structured products; tokenized CLOs and private credit are being launched in anticipation and will take the lion's share of growth next year, with DeFi protocols and protocol treasuries allocating in size and institutions remaining chain-agnostic.
BIL HIGH
Mike Cahill Pyth 22:10
Crypto investors rotate into tech equities
Tech equities have outperformed most crypto beta this year; Bitcoin round-tripped and alts are down, so crypto-exposed investors may rotate into equities. Longer term, crypto rails can solve global accessibility constraints and export US capital markets to smaller international investors.
XLK SPY MED
Mike Cahill Pyth 24:42
Robinhood L2 competes with Base, Hyperliquid
Robinhood launching its own L2 makes sense to compete with Base and Hyperliquid by leveraging its distribution, brand, and clearing/UX experience; if liquidity migrates to its chain, Robinhood can capture that activity.
HOOD LOW
Nicholas Kunkel CEO of Chronicle 26:03
Stablecoins disrupt legacy payment processors
Stablecoins are becoming the default way to make payments; traditional payment processors like Stripe are launching stablecoin rails because their existing businesses are threatened by stablecoins' lower cost and utility. As transfer and FX costs fall, stablecoin rails commoditize and legacy payment rails face pressure.
STABLECOINS HIGH
Nicholas Kunkel CEO of Chronicle 26:03
Stablecoins disrupt legacy payment processors
Stablecoins are becoming the default way to make payments; traditional payment processors like Stripe are launching stablecoin rails because their existing businesses are threatened by stablecoins' lower cost and utility. As transfer and FX costs fall, stablecoin rails commoditize and legacy payment rails face pressure.
IPAY HIGH
Mike Cahill Pyth 30:00
Ethereum trades on brand premium
Ethereum has retained a significant premium due to brand value and EVM network effects, but if L1s were valued on revenue multiples, Ethereum would not do nearly as well; this is a valuation risk if the market shifts to cash-flow-based pricing.
ETH MED
Up Next
1:09:45
The AI Opportunity that goes beyond Models
a16z · Jan 19
30:09
Europe, Trump & the Limits of Trade Escalation | Macro Mondays: January 19, 2026
Real Vision · Jan 19
8:26
Davos: IMF's Georgieva on Trade Tariffs, AI, Venezuela, Ukraine
Bloomberg Markets · Jan 19
1:08:08
Clay Robbins: Building Colosseum, Solana’s Largest Hackathon & Accelerator with 80,000 Participants
Delphi Digital · Jan 19
53:11
Trump Era Davos 'Survival of the Richest' | The Pulse 1/19
Bloomberg Markets · Jan 19

This The Block video, published January 19, 2026, features Mike Cahill, Nicholas Kunkel discussing Tokenized Equities, Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), PYTH, Oracle networks, Tokenized CLOs, Tokenized private credit, BIL, XLK, SPY, HOOD, STABLECOINS, IPAY, ETH. 11 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Mike Cahill, Nicholas Kunkel  · Tickers: Tokenized Equities, Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), PYTH, Oracle networks, Tokenized CLOs, Tokenized private credit, BIL, XLK, SPY, HOOD, STABLECOINS, IPAY, ETH