LINK, the native token of the Chainlink decentralized oracle network platform, is leading the market this morning in a bullish start to the week for cryptocurrencies.
The token spiked to $10.93 earlier today—a level not seen in May 2022 just before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem dragged the markets into a prolonged crypto winter—before backtracking to $10.01 by press time.
At the time of this writing, LINK is up 8% over the past 24 hours, and almost 38% over the last week, according to data by CoinGecko.
Chainlink's impressive performance may be attributed to the growing popularity of its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), the recently launched tech-stack upgrade aimed at simplifying cross-chain transactions.
Introduced in July this year with early adopters including Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, as well as DeFi lending protocols Aave and Synthetix, CCIP created a standard communication system between different, often incompatible, blockchains.
Last month, Chainlink also integrated CCIP into the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer-2 network Base, letting developers build secure cross-chain applications and services.
Decentralization is the holy grail of blockchain buzzwords.
Although it is endlessly touted by crypto advocates far and wide, another hack on the weekend unveiled a not-so-decentralized reality, reviving the industry’s oldest debate.
What does decentralization really mean?
“We are using the word for adoption rather than actual decentralization,” says Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of the decentralized oracle network Chainlink.
For Nazarov, who alluded to the collapse of Celsius, Voyager, FTX, an...
Beyond Chainlink, the wider cryptocurrency market has continued to enjoy a bullish uptick. Per data from CoinGecko, the overall crypto market cap rose nearly 3%, hitting $1.2 trillion. Of the top ten cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin leads the gains with 4%, followed by Solana (3.2%), Ethereum, and Binance Coin (2.1%).
Bitcoin rose 2% overnight and is now trading at roughly $30,500.
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Chainlink CCIP goes enterprise
By simplifying token transfers between blockchains, and reducing complexity compared to third-party bridges, CCIP offers users an enhanced level of protection—a factor that could play a crucial role in the adoption of digital assets given the susceptibility of cross-chain bridges to security breaches and malicious activities.
Notably, CCIP also aims to reach beyond the realm of crypto, opening traditional finance access to crypto.
To that end, Chainlink has been working with major financial institutions, including Swift, BNY Mellon, Citigroup, and BNP Paribas, conducting several blockchain interoperability tests aimed at enabling the transfer of tokenized assets.
Most recently, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)—the leading post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry—became the latest addition to the list of Chainlink’s enterprise partners integrating CCIP.
"The collaboration between DTCC and Chainlink opens the door to a multitude of use cases that could redefine how the financial industry operates."
Stephen Prosperi, DTCC executive director, explains why markets are moving onchain👇
DDTC’s collaboration with Chainlink is part of Swift’s interoperability project, where Swift used CCIP to facilitate secure cross-chain messaging and token transfers, while DTCC served as a token issuer and central securities depository (CSD).
Top college football prospect Matai Tagoa’i is set to join football stars like Russell Okung, Odell Beckham Jr., and Trevor Lawrence by receiving his compensation in Bitcoin.
The linebacker will be paid part of his earnings via the Strike app after signing a “name, image, and likeness” (NIL) deal with the University of Southern California (USC).
The exact details of his package are not known, but some college football players, such as Shedeur Sanders, have received estimated payouts of up to $4....
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock just debuted a new advertisement proselytizing the virtues of Bitcoin, but rather than cheer on the Bitcoin ETF issuer for its efforts, Bitcoiners aren’t happy.
The video, which is housed on the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF page on BlackRock’s website, spends three minutes walking viewers through the evolution of money and key fundamentals of Bitcoin.
One of those fundamentals is Bitcoin’s 21 million fixed token supply.
While the video explains t...
El Salvador may have reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund that will see the tiny country scale back its Bitcoin law—but it’s still going to “HODL.” And it might even step up its BTC buys.
That’s according to Stacy Herbert, the head of El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office, who wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) Thursday that the country may even continue buying the cryptocurrency at an “accelerated pace” going forward.
El Salvador in 2021 made Bitcoin legal tender along with...
