Chainlink’s LINK Surges 13% as Mastercard Partnership Fuels Rally Amid Crypto Recovery

Interoperability platform and oracle provider Chainlink's native token LINK demonstrated remarkable strength on Tuesday, climbing more than 13% over 24 hours to a $13.51 high.

Easing tensions in the Middle East with a ceasefire between Israel and Iran already spurred a broad crypto market recovery, with 98 of the top 100 tokens posting gains and bitcoin BTC rebounding to $106,000.

Still, LINK vastly outperformed bitcoin's 2.8% and the broad-market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index's 5% advances.

The token's bullish action comes as Chainlink announced earlier during the day a partnership with global payments operator Mastercard to enable over 3 billion card holders to purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain.

Read more: Chainlink, Mastercard Tie-Up to Let Nearly 3B Cardholders Buy Crypto On-Chain

Technical Analysis

  • LINK formed a clear uptrend with higher lows and higher highs, breaking through key resistance at $12.50 on substantial volume.
  • Strong support established at $12.85-$13.00, confirmed by multiple tests with above-average volume.
  • Momentum indicators suggest continued bullish sentiment with potential for further upside.
  • Traders should monitor the $13.30-$13.35 resistance zone where recent profit-taking occurred.

Mastercard Expands Stablecoin Push With Paxos, Fiserv and PayPal Integrations

Mastercard (MA) is doubling down on stablecoins with a series of partnerships and product expansions aimed at embedding regulated digital dollars into the everyday payments network.

The payments giant said on Tuesday it will integrate several stablecoins including PayPal’s PYUSD, the Paxos-led Global Dollar (USDG) and Fiserv’s recently unveiled FIUSD into its global network, which already includes support for Circle’s USDC. It is also introducing stablecoin transactions for cross-border payments through Mastercard Move.

The company also said it's also working with financial technology provider Fiserv (FI) to bring FIUSD support to its card products, on- and offramps and merchant settlements, and will let consumers spend both fiat and stablecoin balances under a single interface with Mastercard One Credential.

The initiatives are the latest examples of global banks and payment firms racing to embrace stablecoins, a type of digital currency with prices anchored to an external asset such as fiat currencies, into their offerings. It's a $260 billion, and rapidly growing, asset class and promises programmable transactions and faster, cheaper payments than through traditional banking channels. Institutional adoption is accelerating after the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act to regulate the stablecoin sector.

“We expect that consumers and businesses will continue to use fiat currency with their Mastercard cards for most use cases,” Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in a blog post. “But regulated stablecoins are undoubtedly part of the evolution of digital payments.”

These moves mean financial institutions and businesses could soon mint, redeem and settle transactions using select stablecoins, while consumers may use them in the same way they would use traditional currencies for transfers and payments, including at the firm’s 150 million merchant locations.

The stablecoin integrations join existing digital asset offerings, which span card programs with crypto firms that allow users to spend their crypto holdings to merchant settlements and tokenized bank deposits.

Future plans include enabling programmable payments via Mastercard's Multi-Token Network.

Read more: Mastercard Says It Has Moved Beyond Experimentation in Crypto, Focused on 'Real Solutions'

Chainlink, Mastercard Tie-Up to Let Nearly 3B Cardholders Buy Crypto On-Chain

Chainlink and Mastercard have linked their networks so more than three billion Mastercard holders can purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain.

The service folds several players into a single flow. Shift4 processes the card payment, zerohash custodies fiat currency and delivers crypto liquidity, while XSwap and Uniswap execute the final token swap on decentralized markets.

Chainlink’s interoperability protocol stitches those steps together, passing transaction data between the card network and multiple blockchains, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk.

Raj Dhamodharan, who leads blockchain efforts at Mastercard, said the firm wants to “bridge the gap between onchain commerce and offchain transactions.”

The deal helps enable a “critical connection between the traditional payments world and the over three billion cardholders in the Mastercard user base,” according to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov.

Mastercard has been slowly moving deeper into the cryptocurrency space. Just last month, the firm partnered with MoonPay to let users spend stablecoins at more than 150 million merchants worldwide. Similarly, back in April Kraken and Mastercard teamed up to introduce cryptocurrency debit cards.

Read more: MoonPay Mastercard Launch Crypto Card, Allowing Users to Make Merchant Payments With Stablecoins

MoonPay Users Can Now Make Stablecoins to Make Payments With Mastercard Partnership

MoonPay has partnered with Mastercard to let users spend stablecoins at more than 150 million merchants worldwide, the company announced on Thursday.

The integration means that users of “every crypto wallet” will be able to access virtual Mastercards that draw directly from their stablecoin balances. The cards can be used at any merchant in Mastercard’s network.

The rollout comes amid a broader trend. Mastercard has last month unveiled end-to-end stablecoin capabilities as it moves deeper into the cryptocurrency economy, and partnered with OKX to launch a debit card with the exchange.

Similarly, crypto exchange Kraken teamed up with Mastercard to let its users in the UK and Europe spend their cryptocurrency at any merchant in the payments giant’s network.

Earlier this year, Mastercard also began supporting tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) on its network through a partnership with Ondo Finance, which offers tokenized U.S. Treasury bills.

Mastercard Unveils End-to-End Stablecoin Capabilities, Will Launch Card With OKX

Mastercard is moving deeper into the digital asset economy by launching new global capabilities to support stablecoin payments across its vast merchant network, the company announced Monday.

The payments giant is working with crypto exchange OKX to roll out the “OKX Card,” aimed at linking crypto trading and Web3 activities with everyday spending. Meanwhile, merchants will soon be able to settle transactions directly in stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC, thanks to collaborations with Nuvei and Circle. Paxos will help extend this functionality to other supported stablecoins like USDP.

“When it comes to blockchain and digital assets, the benefits for mainstream use cases are clear,” Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in a statement. “To realize its potential, we need to make it as easy for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them. We believe in the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments and commerce across the value chain. Unlocking this is core to how we navigate the rapidly changing world, giving people and businesses the freedom they want by providing the choices they deserve,” he said.

Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar, have been gradually moving beyond trading venues into mainstream payments.

Mastercard’s initiative covers the full range of stablecoin use cases, from wallet enablement and card issuance to merchant settlement and on-chain remittances. The company has previously partnered with crypto exchanges like Kraken, Binance and Crypto.com to allow users to pay with stablecoins via traditional cards.

Last year, it rolled out Mastercard Crypto Credential, a service designed to simplify sending digital assets across borders using verified usernames rather than complex wallet addresses.

In 2023, Mastercard launched its Multi-Token Network (MTN) which is being leveraged to facilitate real-time settlements and redemptions of tokenized assets.

Ondo Finance, in February, became the first provider to bring real-world assets to the network.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Kraken Teams Up With Mastercard to Introduce Crypto Debit Cards

Crypto exchange Kraken is teaming up with Mastercard to let crypto holders in the UK and Europe spend their digital assets at more than 150 million merchants worldwide, Mastercard announced.

Kraken will offer physical and digital debit cards, allowing customers to use crypto and stablecoins in everyday transactions. It’s the latest development in Kraken Pay, a service that debuted earlier this year that enables cross-border payments in over 300 crypto and fiat currencies.

More than 200,000 users have already activated their “Kraktag,” a unique identifier tied to their Kraken wallet, simplifying the use of Kraken Pay’s services, according to the press release.

David Ripley, Kraken’s co-CEO, said the initiative aims to close the gap between the crypto economy and traditional spending. “Our customers want to easily pay for real-world goods and services using their crypto or stablecoins,” Ripley said.

The debit cards are expected to be available in the coming weeks.

Ondo Finance to Bring RWAs to Mastercard Network

Tokenized real-world assert (RWA) issuer Ondo Finance has joined the Mastercard network that connects financial institutions with businesses to improve cross-border payments.

Ondo’s Short-Term U.S. Government Treasuries Fund (OUSG) investment product will be available to businesses on Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN), giving them access to yield via tokenized assets, according to an emailed announcement on Wednesday.

The majority of OUSG’s assets are invested in BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), the largest blockchain-based money market fund, which is backed by short-term U.S. government bonds.

Mastercard’s MTN incorporates API-enabled blockchain tools to allow banks to streamline domestic and cross-border transactions.

Traditional financial (TradFi) giants like Mastercard developing blockchain-based networks means that other financial institutions and corporates are able to access cryptocurrency and other digital assets without having to set up additional crypto infrastructure or accounts.

Mastercard Says It Has Moved Beyond Experimentation in Crypto, Focused on ‘Real Solutions’

Traditional finance firms that have adopted crypto are moving past the experimentation phase and are actively working on real-world solutions, Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan, told CoinDesk.

“Many of us in the industry are moving beyond experimentation; it’s actually real solutions,” he said, noting that Mastercard has already enabled stablecoin payments for financial institutions. Those institutions can choose to settle transactions using stablecoins, reflecting a broader trend in crypto adoption.

Last week, the payments giant announced a partnership with crypto compliance firm Notabene, which will integrate Mastercard’s Crypto Credential into its SafeTransact platform to make digital asset transactions more secure and user-friendly.

The Crypto Credential system continues to be a focus of Mastercard’s efforts to make crypto more mainstream. It allows users to send funds using familiar identifiers like email addresses rather than complex wallet addresses while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. The system also helps prevent misdirected transactions by verifying whether a recipient’s wallet can receive a specific asset.

“What is stopping [crypto] from going mainstream is really that consumers need to be able to find each other using what they already know,” Dhamodharan said.

Mastercard’s goal, according to Dhamodharan, is to be a connector between traditional finance and blockchain networks, ensuring regulatory compliance while enabling new business models. The company plans to announce additional partnerships and use cases in 2025, reinforcing its commitment to integrating crypto into global payments.

“As an industry as a whole, we need to be very open to making [crypto] available as broadly as possible,” he said.

Previously, the payments giant partnered with several crypto-native companies, including Binance. The two parted ways in August 2023 after Binance faced a series of legal issues in the U.S. Mastercard re-allowed users to purchase crypto on the exchange again a year later.

“Binance is a great partner of ours,” Dhamodharan said. “We continue to partner with them in a number of new ways where we can help them with on-ramp and off-ramp. Those are the continuing conversations.”

Taking crypto to the ‘next level’

Dhamodharan is also optimistic about the future of tokenization, which he said will require new business models to feed the growing demand for tokenization real-world assets by companies like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton.

“​​If there is more clarity over time in terms of how deposits can be represented in some form on the public chain, from a regulatory standpoint, I think this can even go to the next level in terms of how it can scale,” he said.

In 2025, Mastercard’s focus lies on the on-ramp/off-ramp between crypto and the banking world, while making that process as smooth and safe as possible as well as expanding features and functions of its Crypto Credential product. The third focus is stablecoins, the company said.

“We think the future is going to be a world of both deposits because that’s where the money is, and that’s where people and businesses hold money and stablecoins, which can move on-chain easily and get settled easily.”

Read more: Mastercard and JPMorgan Link Up to Bring Cross-Border Payments on the Blockchain