Chainlink delivers data to smart contracts, moves messages and tokens across blockchains, runs compliance and privacy logic and runs off-chain compute, all through decentralized oracle networks. It does this with a set of separate products, and that set changed a lot in 2026: Chainlink Functions and Automation are deprecated, the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) is now the compute layer and CCIP 2.0 has been live since 28 September 2026.
This page is a product-by-product reference. For each product it says what problem it solves, how it works in a few sentences and what status Chainlink gives it, as shown in Chainlink’s documentation and on chain.link on 24 October 2026. Where we have a deeper guide, it is linked. For the network as a whole, start with what is Chainlink.
The short version
Status as Chainlink shows it on 24 October 2026:
- Data Feeds: no status label.
- Data Streams: no status label (the Streams Trade add-on is being deprecated).
- SmartData (Proof of Reserve, NAVLink, SmartAUM, MVR): no status label.
- DataLink: no status label.
- SVR: no status label.
- CCIP and Cross-Chain Token (CCT): no status label, CCIP 2.0 live since 28 September 2026.
- CRE: live since 4 November 2025, deploying workflows requires approval.
- ACE: private beta.
- CRE Connect: private beta.
- Chainlink for Agents: beta.
- DTA Technical Standard: “Now live in production” on its docs page.
- Privacy Standard: early access (Confidential Workflows in private beta)
- VRF v2.5: no status label, current version.
- Fulcrum and Payments Orchestrator: newly listed on chain.link, tagged “NEW”.
- Functions and Automation: deprecated.
- VRF v2: deprecated. Any API: legacy. Streams Trade: being deprecated.
“No status label” means we found no beta, deprecated or legacy marker on the product’s documentation overview or its chain.link page. It describes what Chainlink shows, not how mature a product is.
How Chainlink groups its products
Chainlink’s documentation describes the stack as four open standards for designing and operating oracle services: data oracles, interoperability oracles, compliance oracles and privacy oracles. Chainlink’s platform page adds orchestration as a fifth part, which is CRE.
This article follows that grouping: data, interoperability, compliance, privacy and compute, then randomness. The mapping of each product to a group is ours. Chainlink’s docs page names the standards, and ties them to the Onchain Data Protocol, CCIP and the Onchain Compliance Protocol, but does not list every product under each one. If you only want to know what to use, jump to how to tell which product you need.
Data products
Data Feeds
Problem: a contract needs a value from the outside world, such as an asset price, and cannot fetch it itself.
How it works: a decentralized set of independent node operators aggregates data from many sources and publishes the result on-chain. A new value is written when it deviates past a threshold or when a heartbeat runs out, whichever comes first. Your contract reads the latest value in a single call. Chainlink says lending markets, stablecoins and tokenized funds use feeds to value collateral and settle positions.
Reading a feed needs no library. This script makes two plain JSON-RPC calls against a public Ethereum endpoint to the ETH/USD proxy, decimals() and latestRoundData(), plus a control call with an unknown selector that must revert. We ran it on 24 October 2026 and all three behaved as expected:
const RPC_URL = process.env.RPC_URL ?? "https://ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com";
const FEED = "0x5f4eC3Df9cbd43714FE2740f5E3616155c5b8419"; // ETH / USD proxy, Ethereum mainnet
async function call(data) {
const r = await fetch(RPC_URL, { method: "POST", headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ jsonrpc: "2.0", id: 1, method: "eth_call", params: [{ to: FEED, data }, "latest"] }) });
return r.json();
}
const word = (hex, i) => BigInt("0x" + hex.slice(2 + i * 64, 2 + (i + 1) * 64));
const dec = await call("0x313ce567"); // decimals()
const rd = await call("0xfeaf968c"); // latestRoundData()
const decimals = Number(word(dec.result, 0));
const answer = word(rd.result, 1), updatedAt = Number(word(rd.result, 3));
console.log({ decimals, roundId: word(rd.result, 0).toString(), answer: answer.toString(),
updatedAtUtc: new Date(updatedAt * 1000).toISOString(), ageSeconds: Math.round(Date.now() / 1000) - updatedAt });
console.log("control (bad selector):", JSON.stringify(await call("0xdeadbeef")));The docs say to read each feed’s precision with decimals() instead of hardcoding it, and the script does. Divide answer by 10 to the power of decimals to get the real value. The feed address comes from Chainlink’s price feed addresses page, where this feed is listed as “ETH / USD”.
Feed types: the docs list Price, SmartData, SVR, Rate and Volatility, L2 Sequencer Uptime and Self-Managed feeds. The landing page adds Tokenized Equity feeds. Tokenized Equity feeds provide 24/5 pricing for tokenized US equities and ETFs, and the docs say developers must contact Chainlink Labs before integrating them. Rate and Volatility feeds cover interest rates, interest rate curves and asset volatility. On chain.link the page is called “Market and Data Feeds”, in the docs it is “Data Feeds”.
Status: no label. Individual feeds can be deprecated, which is a different thing from the product. Separately, Chainlink’s changelog said scheduled (cron) updates for some feeds would be fully shut down on or shortly after 30 September 2026, a date that has now passed. The changelog says those feeds are not being deprecated and keep updating on their heartbeat and deviation thresholds.
Deep dive: how Chainlink price feeds work. For how many feeds exist, on which chains and with which settings, see Chainlink data feeds by the numbers. For a real list by chain, see the Chainlink feeds a Matrixed.Link node reports on.
Smart Value Recapture (SVR)
Problem: oracle updates, most commonly during liquidations on lending protocols, create value that someone captures. Chainlink calls it Oracle Extractable Value (OEV), a subset of non-toxic Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) associated with oracle updates, and SVR is built to let the protocol recapture it.
How it works: SVR feeds are a Data Feeds type that lets a protocol recapture that value. They are read the same way as standard feeds, and you only specify an SVR-enabled feed address. On Ethereum mainnet SVR supports multiple orderflow auctions in parallel, including Flashbots and Titan. Chainlink also says SVR is available on Base, Arbitrum and BNB Chain through the Atlas auction system.
Status: no label. It sits inside Data Feeds rather than having its own docs product.
Deep dive: Chainlink SVR.
Data Streams
Problem: a push feed is only as fresh as its last trigger, which is too slow for perpetuals, options and other latency-sensitive markets.
How it works: Data Streams is pull-based. You fetch signed reports for crypto, equities, FX and commodities through the Go, Rust and TypeScript SDKs or the REST and WebSocket APIs, then verify them on-chain in the same transaction that uses them. The docs list Crypto Streams, Real World Asset (RWA) Streams, Tokenized Asset Streams and SmartData Streams. Chainlink describes it as self-serve, with no sales call required.
Status: no label for Data Streams itself. Streams Trade, an add-on that combined Data Streams with Chainlink Automation, is being deprecated (see below). Individual streams are also retired from time to time: the changelog lists streams scheduled for deprecation on 18 October 2026. That is about single streams, not the product.
Deep dive: Chainlink Data Streams.
SmartData
Problem: tokenized real-world assets need real-world data on-chain, such as reserves, net asset value (NAV) and assets under management.
How it works: SmartData is a suite with three categories. Proof of Reserve feeds give the status of reserves for stablecoins, wrapped assets and real world assets, in units such as ounces or number of tokens. NAVLink feeds provide the NAV of tokenized assets, funds or portfolios. SmartAUM feeds provide the total market value of assets an entity manages on behalf of clients. They come in two shapes: single-value feeds, like price feeds, and Multiple-Variable Response (MVR) feeds, which bundle several numeric and non-numeric data points into one on-chain update.
One caution from the docs: Chainlink Labs is not responsible for the accuracy of self-reported reserves data, so check where a reserve figure comes from. Chainlink’s website still has separate Proof of Reserve and SmartData pages, while the docs place Proof of Reserve under SmartData.
Status: no label.
Deep dive: Chainlink Proof of Reserve.
DataLink
Problem: a data provider wants its specialized market data to be usable by smart contracts.
How it works: DataLink is an institutional-grade data publishing service that lets data providers commercialize specialized market data on-chain through Chainlink’s infrastructure. Its docs cover both sides: data providers who publish through it and protocols that consume the data.
Status: no label.
Deep dive: what is a Chainlink data provider.
Interoperability: CCIP and Cross-Chain Tokens
Problem: an application on one blockchain needs to send data or tokens to another.
How it works: the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) sends data and tokens across blockchains. Tokens move as Cross-Chain Tokens (CCTs). A CCT is any ERC-20 token registered and configured for cross-chain transfers via CCIP, built from a token, a token pool and a Token Admin Registry. Chainlink’s docs describe three token handling mechanisms, depending on how pools are paired across chains: burn and mint, lock and mint (burn and unlock is the same pairing in the other direction) and lock and unlock. By default, token developers keep ownership and control of their token contracts and pools.
CCIP 2.0 was announced as live on 28 September 2026 and is available to all institutions and digital asset issuers. Chainlink’s changelog describes it as bringing new opt-in features, including built-in compliance functions with native integration with ACE.
Status: no beta or deprecated label. The docs show a “New” tag on the CCIP 2.0 banner. Our CCIP guide explains how 2.0 verifies and delivers messages.
Compliance: ACE and the DTA standard
Automated Compliance Engine (ACE)
Problem: compliance rules such as transfer limits, identity checks and sanctions screening end up copied into every application.
How it works: ACE is a compliance layer for EVM smart contracts. It enforces rules at transaction time without embedding compliance logic in your application code. A PolicyEngine evaluates a chain of modular policies every time a protected function is called. A Cross-Chain Identifier (CCID) links all of a user’s wallet addresses across chains to a single identity. Active Monitoring screens addresses with TRM and enforces actions on tokens you already run.
Status: private beta. The docs say ACE is available in private beta, and to request access or schedule a demo you contact Chainlink.
Deep dive: Chainlink ACE.
Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) Technical Standard
Problem: transfer agents and fund administrators need to run their operations on-chain for tokenized funds.
How it works: the DTA technical standard defines how they can expand operations on-chain to support tokenized assets, starting with tokenized investment funds as the initial use case.
Status: the DTA docs page says “Now live in production”. The same page says a paragraph later that the standard “is being built to seamlessly run on top of Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE)”. We quote both and do not reconcile them. CRE Connect also ships a DTA extension.
Privacy: the Chainlink Privacy Standard
Problem: transactions and data on a public blockchain are visible to everyone, which does not suit sensitive financial data.
How it works: Chainlink describes its privacy standard as using privacy oracles to conceal sensitive data and provide confidential computing via CRE. It also includes DECO, Blockchain Privacy Manager and CCIP Private Transactions. On chain.link it is listed as “Private transactions on any blockchain”. Confidential HTTP in CRE was listed as in production in CRE’s release notes on 25 February 2026.
Status: early access. The chain.link page invites teams to “Get early access”, and the docs say Confidential Workflows in CRE is in private beta and requires enrollment through a Chainlink account team.
Compute and orchestration
Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE)
Problem: useful applications need several steps: read a chain, call an API, apply logic, write a result, run on a schedule. One fixed-purpose oracle product cannot do all of it.
How it works: CRE is Chainlink’s orchestration layer. You write workflows with the CRE SDK in Go or TypeScript, and the workflows run on decentralized oracle networks. Results are cryptographically verified and aggregated through a Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus protocol. On 19 October 2026 the release notes said Solana is fully supported in CRE.
CRE is also the named replacement for Functions, Automation, Streams Trade and Any API. Chainlink’s migration guides say CRE is a superset of Functions and of Automation: anything they do, CRE does. Chainlink’s docs index tells readers to prefer CRE for new multi-step, off-chain or automation workflows unless another product is explicitly required. The docs do not say CRE replaces Data Feeds or VRF, and the same index says to prefer VRF v2.5 for randomness.
Status, in Chainlink’s words: CRE has been live since 4 November 2025. Building and simulating workflows is available now without approval. The docs say “Deploying workflows requires approval.” The service quotas page says registry quotas are “being actively tuned ahead of general availability”. Chainlink shows no general availability label and we found no announcement, so we do not call it generally available.
Deep dive: Chainlink CRE.
CRE Connect
Problem: a chain-facing application needs verified on-chain events and a way to send transactions without building that plumbing itself.
How it works: CRE Connect is one managed API and Go SDK for chain-facing applications. It offers DON-verified on-chain events, gas-less operations executed by Smart Accounts and one-shot verifiable chain queries.
Status: Private Beta. Chainlink’s docs index describes it as a private beta with permissioned access.
Chainlink for Agents
Problem: an AI agent that acts on-chain needs verified data and a way to execute and pay without a human setting up accounts.
How it works: it is a hosted HTTP gateway plus bundled agent skills that let an agent operate on-chain with verified pricing data and workflows for on-chain actions. Agents register autonomously and pay per call with x402 using USDC on Base.
Status: Beta. Chainlink says its APIs and functionality may change.
Fulcrum and Payments Orchestrator
Both are tagged “NEW” in the chain.link product menu, and neither had a documentation page on 24 October 2026, so treat them as newly listed.
- Fulcrum: chain.link says it orchestrates financing agreements, collateral and payments across public and private blockchains. Participants define eligible assets, financing terms and settlement chains, and Fulcrum coordinates the transaction lifecycle across integrated venues and networks.
- Payments Orchestrator: chain.link describes orchestration and interoperability for tokenized deposits, and says it is built on CRE, CCIP and ACE.
Randomness: VRF v2.5
Problem: games, NFT mints and raffles need random numbers that nobody, including the operator, can bias.
How it works: Chainlink VRF generates one or more random values with a cryptographic proof of how they were determined. The proof is published and verified on-chain before any consuming application can use the values. You request randomness through a subscription or by direct funding.
Status: VRF v2.5 is the current version. Chainlink’s docs index says to prefer it for randomness. It adds easier upgrades to future versions and the option to pay in LINK or native tokens. Older versions are covered below. We have no dedicated VRF guide; what is Chainlink mentions it in one line.
Deprecated and legacy products
These are the products you will still find in older tutorials. Check the dates before building on any of them.
- Chainlink Functions: deprecated. It gave smart contracts serverless compute on a decentralized oracle network, so they could fetch data from APIs and run custom code. Chainlink’s docs banner reads “deprecated (mainnet: June 30, 2026, testnet: June 15, 2026)”. Replacement: CRE, which the page says does everything and more. Existing subscriptions had to be migrated to avoid service disruption.
- Chainlink Automation: deprecated. It ran contract functions when conditions were met. The banner says v1.x was deprecated as of 30 June 2026 and v2.1 as of 31 July 2026, with the testnet on 24 June 2026. Replacement: CRE. The migration guide maps time-based upkeeps to the built-in Cron trigger and log trigger upkeeps to the EVM Log trigger.
- Streams Trade: being deprecated. It combined Data Streams with Automation. The docs say it is being deprecated in favor of CRE.
- VRF v2: deprecated. The docs warn that security fixes for VRF v2 are not guaranteed. VRF v2.5 replaced both VRF v1 and VRF v2 on 29 November 2024.
- Any API: legacy. Chainlink’s docs index says to treat Any API as legacy. The Any API docs remain as a public historical reference for node operators, and for new work Chainlink points to CRE.
Chainlink uses different wording across its own pages for Functions and Automation. The docs say “has been deprecated”, the product apps say “is being deprecated” and the docs index calls them “sunset”. The dates above come from the documentation pages, which agree with each other. Their old HTML pages still load, so a working link does not mean a working product.
How to tell which product you need
Start from the problem, then check the status line above.
- A price for a lending protocol: Data Feeds. If you want to capture liquidation value, look at SVR feeds. On an L2 network, also use the L2 Sequencer Uptime feed where one exists: Chainlink is no longer expanding those feeds to new networks.
- Low-latency prices for a perp DEX or options: Data Streams.
- Proof that a stablecoin or wrapped asset is backed: SmartData Proof of Reserve feeds.
- NAV or assets under management of a tokenized fund: NAVLink or SmartAUM feeds.
- A token that lives on several chains: CCIP and the Cross-Chain Token standard.
- Randomness for a game or mint: VRF v2.5, not v2.
- Compliance checks on transfers: ACE, which is in private beta, so plan for an access request.
- Custom off-chain logic, API calls or scheduled jobs: CRE. Check the approval step for deploying workflows.
- Selling your own data on-chain: DataLink.
- Confidential transactions or data: the Privacy Standard.
- Tokenized fund transfer agency: the DTA Technical Standard.
- An AI agent that needs verified data: Chainlink for Agents, in beta.
Most real applications combine two or three of these. A lending protocol might use Data Feeds for prices, CCIP for a cross-chain collateral token and CRE for a custom workflow around them.
Staking and who runs all this
Chainlink Staking is separate from the products above, and Chainlink staking has its own page. Every data product on this page depends on node operators doing the same jobs over and over: running nodes, signing reports and staying online. If you want to know what that role involves, read what is a Chainlink node operator. For how Chainlink accumulates LINK from fees paid for its services, see Chainlink Reserve explained.
Sources & References
Chainlink documentation and chain.link pages were opened on 24 October 2026. Statuses and dates are as those pages showed them that day. The ETH/USD read was run on the same day against a public Ethereum RPC endpoint.
- Chainlink docs, Confidential Workflows
- Chainlink Documentation, home and docs index (llms.txt)
- Chainlink Documentation, Oracle Platform overview (four standards, Privacy Standard)
- Chainlink, The Chainlink Platform and Privacy
- Chainlink Documentation, Data Feeds and feed types
- Chainlink Documentation, Decentralized Data Model
- Chainlink Documentation, Price Feed Addresses
- Chainlink Documentation, SVR Feeds
- Chainlink Documentation, SmartData
- Chainlink Documentation, Tokenized Equity Feeds
- Chainlink Documentation, Data Streams and architecture
- Chainlink Documentation, Streams Trade
- Chainlink Documentation, DataLink
- Chainlink Documentation, CCIP, CCIP architecture overview and Cross-Chain Token overview
- Chainlink Blog, Introducing CCIP 2.0 (28 September 2026)
- Chainlink Documentation, changelog
- Chainlink Documentation, CRE overview, deploy access, service quotas and release notes
- Chainlink Documentation, Functions migration to CRE and Automation migration to CRE
- Chainlink Documentation, Chainlink Functions and Chainlink Automation (deprecation banners)
- Chainlink Documentation, Any API introduction
- Chainlink Documentation, VRF and migration from VRF v2
- Chainlink Documentation, ACE overview and getting started
- Chainlink Documentation, DTA Technical Standard
- Chainlink Documentation, CRE Connect
- Chainlink Documentation, Chainlink for Agents
- Chainlink, Fulcrum and Payments Orchestrator
Work with Matrixed.Link
Matrixed.Link operates Chainlink oracle infrastructure, validator nodes and full-stack blockchain infrastructure for protocols and institutions that need institutional-grade reliability. Official Chainlink node operator running Data Feeds, CRE, SVR and Proof of Reserve. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified. AAA-rated provider on StakingRewards.
Contact Matrixed.Link to discuss Chainlink oracle infrastructure for your protocol.
