Chainlink Partners Mastercard for Crypto Purchases LINK Surges 14%

Chainlink has announced a significant partnership with Mastercard, aimed at simplifying and securing crypto purchases for mainstream users. This collaboration will enable over 3 billion Mastercard cardholders globally to buy digital assets directly on-chain using fiat currency. This development represents a major advancement in the integration of traditional finance with blockchain technology.

The integration is facilitated by Chainlink’s secure interoperability technology and Mastercard’s extensive global payments network. This partnership aims to eliminate the traditional barriers between fiat payments and crypto access, creating a seamless bridge for users new to the on-chain economy. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for Blockchain and Digital Assets, emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating that people want an easy way to connect to the digital assets ecosystem and vice versa. Mastercard is leveraging its expertise and global payments network to bridge the gap between on-chain commerce and off-chain transactions.

Following the announcement, Chainlink’s native token, LINK, experienced a surge of approximately 14%, reaching $13.37. This initiative relies on a group of integrated partners to ensure a regulated and smooth transaction process. Key players include Zerohash, which provides the core infrastructure for converting fiat into crypto, offering compliance, custody, and smart contract execution. Zerohash also serves as the liquidity provider for these conversions. Shift4 Payments handles card processing, while Swapper Finance powers the front-end user interface. Additionally, the system leverages XSwap, a decentralized exchange built on Chainlink’s interoperability standards, which sources liquidity from DEX protocols like Uniswap to finalize swaps on-chain.

These collaborations enable users to perform fiat-to-crypto transactions in a secure and compliant environment, without requiring them to leave the user-friendly interface of traditional financial tools. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov described the initiative as a “critical step” in bringing decentralized finance (DeFi) closer to real-world users. He noted that connecting Mastercard’s vast user base to on-chain trading environments aligns with Chainlink’s broader mission to bridge traditional and decentralized systems. Nazarov added that this was a complex and multilayered collaboration, representing the type of traditional finance and decentralized finance convergence that Chainlink was built to make possible.