Chainlink and Bottomline, a top-three provider of SWIFT services, have partnered to give more than 600 banking customers access to blockchain-based cross-border settlement. Banks can keep using their existing SWIFT messaging while Chainlink's infrastructure routes transactions to blockchain networks. The deal comes as LINK's price rose 6.4% on Thursday alongside a broad crypto rally.
Chainlink is putting its technology inside a major piece of global financial infrastructure. Bottomline processes more than $16 trillion in payments annually and serves 600-plus banks, 1,200 financial institutions, and 10,000 businesses worldwide, and the new partnership connects that network to blockchain settlement.
Banks Keep Their Messaging System
Banks using Bottomline can continue sending instructions with ISO 20022, the global standard that structures how financial institutions exchange payment information, rather than rebuilding their core systems. The deal bridges traditional finance with public and private blockchains without forcing banks to change how they already operate.
CCIP Routes the Transactions Across Chains
A bank can send a standard SWIFT message and have Chainlink's infrastructure connect that instruction to blockchain settlement through its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, which moves tokenized value between separate blockchain networks. Chainlink's Runtime Environment then coordinates the payment workflows and transaction routing. CCIP has logged mainnet activity since July 2023 and now connects more than 60 blockchain networks.
Cross-Border Delays Remain the Target
Cross-border transactions can still take days to settle, while fees can consume 5% or more of a transfer's value, since payments often pass through several intermediary banks. Chainlink's broader push includes Project Pangea, which involves more than 50 banking institutions across Europe and South Korea managing more than $10 trillion in assets and targets same-day foreign exchange settlement. JPMorgan Chase, ANZ Bank, UBS Asset Management, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority have also used CCIP for cross-chain settlement and tokenized funds.
LINK Rises as Institutional Interest Builds
LINK's price rose 6.4% on Thursday, Sept. 3, alongside the broader crypto rally. The token also got a boost from Schwab Crypto's plans to list LINK alongside SOL and AVAX. LINK is currently the 13th-largest digital currency by market cap, and tokenization is projected to become a $16 trillion market by 2030.
The partnership itself does not guarantee that Bottomline's banking customers will move payments onchain or that projected cost savings will materialize. It provides the technical connection; banks, payment providers, and regulators will now decide how far the integration goes.
Source: Bitcoin.com News
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