LINK, the native cryptocurrency of the decentralized oracle network Chainlink, surged over 7% during Tuesday’s U.S. trading session. The buying pressure likely followed a major collaboration between Chainlink and MasterCard, along with other partners, to revolutionize how mainstream payment cardholders access cryptocurrencies. While geopolitical tensions are pressurizing broader markets, this news-driven rally has brought the LINK price close to a major breakout, offering an opportunity for a higher rally.
Chainlink, Mastercard Link TradFi to On-Chain DeFi Solutions
On Tuesday, June 24, Chainlink announced its new partnership with Mastercard that aims to connect the off-chain payment world to the on-chain DeFi ecosystem. The initiative will enable over 3 billion Mastercard users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain in a secure and seamless fiat-to-crypto transaction.
“There’s no doubt about it – people want to be able to easily connect to the digital assets ecosystem, and vice versa. That’s why we continue to leverage our proven expertise and global payments network to bridge the gap between onchain commerce and offchain transactions,” said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard.
According to the press release, the initiative operates in conjunction with a group of integrated partners to provide a regulated and seamless transaction process. One of the key players is ZeroHash, which provides compliance, custody, and transaction infrastructure to facilitate seamless fiat-to-crypto conversion for smart contract consumption in a regulated manner.
Further integration support comes from Shift4 Payments, responsible for processing card transactions, and Swapper Finance, which leverages XSwap to facilitate seamless on-chain token swaps using decentralized liquidity from Uniswap.
The broader goal of this project is to create a compliant, unified, and intuitive experience for payment cardholders interacting with crypto.
“This is the type of traditional finance and decentralized finance convergence that Chainlink was built to make possible,” said Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink.
Also Read: US Sen. Adam Schiff Proposes to Ban Presidents and Their Families From Profiting Off Crypto
LINK Price Aims to End 2025 Correction with this Breakout
Over the last 48 hours, the Chinalink price has bounced from $11.42 to $13.42, registering a 17.82% increase. This bullish upswing invalidated a bearish breakdown from the $12.65 support on June 20th and likely forced the liquidation of hasty short-sellers in the market.
Following the momentum of the aforementioned collaboration, the LINK price is just 4% away from challenging the key resistance of the long-coming channel pattern. Since mid-December 2024, the coin price has been resonating strictly within the two downsloping trendlines of this pattern, driving a steady correction trend.
Thus, a potential bullish breakout from the overhead resistance will signal a change in market direction and drive a rally past $18 to chase the potential target of $22.00 and $27.02.
On the contrary, if the sellers continue to defend the falling trendline amid prolonged geopolitical tension in the Middle East, the coin price will likely continue its downtrend within the channel pattern.
