Chainlink and Mastercard Partners to Let 3 Billion Users Buy Crypto

Chainlink and Mastercard have joined forces to let more than 3 billion Mastercard users buy crypto directly onchain. This new system is now live through Swapper Finance and allows users to convert fiat to crypto in seconds using their debit or credit cards, without using a centralized exchange.

Source: Chris Barrett X Handle

TradFi Meets DeFi

This collaboration combines global payments power of Mastercard with the secure onchain infrastructure of Chainlink. The objective is to eliminate barriers that have kept everyday people from exploring crypto. Instead of dealing with the complications of exchanges and offramps, users can now make crypto purchases directly using their cards.

“This is the type of network Chainlink was developed for, linking traditional payment systems with the onchain economy,” said Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink.

Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for Blockchain and Digital Assets, added, “People look for simplified access to digital assets. With Chainlink, we’re making that possible through a secure, regulated gateway.”

$LINK Price Surges After the Announcement

The market promptly responded to the news. Chainlink's token, $LINK, increased by double digits after the news. The price rise is a testament to the community's faith in the project's utility in the real world and its ability to usher in millions of new users to cryptocurrency. Currently it is trading at $13.39 with an increase of 0.73% in the last 24 hours. Technical aspects show that the token has consolidated near $13.30 - $13.60 support and traders expect it to target above $16.18. Market wide recovery after the Iran and Israel war ceasefire announcement also contributed to the price rise, Bitcoin price increased by 0.75% and Ethereum increased by 1.84% within the last 24 hours as per the CoinMarketCap.

Source: CoinMarketCap

This is not just a hype, it's functioning infrastructure that bridges global payments and decentralized apps. They're calling it one of the biggest moves in mainstream crypto adoption this year.

How the Framework Operates

The entire experience is powered by a group of partners working behind the scenes:

• Zerohash provides fiat-to-crypto conversion, handles regulation, and supplies the digital assets liquidity.

• Shift4 Payments enables smooth card transactions with Mastercard.

• XSwap , built within the Chainlink ecosystem, finds the best swap prices by pulling liquidity from Uniswap and other decentralized exchanges.

• Swapper Finance ties all these systems together, creating an easy-to-use app for users.

Together, they form a regulated, user-friendly way for anyone with a card to buy digital currency instantly. There's no need to open a separate account on a crypto exchange or deal with long wait times.

Building for the Future of Crypto

This is not the first crypto step by Mastercard. In the month of April 2025, Mastercard collaborated with Kraken to enable individuals in the UK and those in the EU access to spend tokens on more than 150M merchants. The previous deal was concentrated on crypto expenditure, whereas the current partnership is centered on purchasing cryptocurrency onchain itself.

Uniting the Chainlink smart contract capabilities and global territory of Mastercard, the companies are closing the divide between the offchain and onchain spaces, years of discussion, but only a few decent instances of implementation.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t just another partnership. It’s real infrastructure, one that brings DeFi to the wallets of billions. With the LINK price climbing and the system now live, the digital assets world may be entering a new chapter of mainstream access. The community is bullish for the $LINK token, it is worth watching how the prie fluctuates.