Bitcoin began the week below $80,000 while Chainlink’s LINK token outperformed the largest cryptocurrencies after payment technology provider Bottomline announced an agreement to connect its banking customers to blockchain settlement.

LINK rose about 6.8% over 24 hours to reach $13.64 on September 7, its highest price since January 18. The move made it the best-performing asset among the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, as most of the group traded flat or lower. Open interest in LINK derivatives also reached an 11-month high of $784 million.

Bottomline, described as a top-three SWIFT services provider, processes more than $16 trillion in payments annually and serves more than 600 banks. It also works with roughly 1,200 financial institutions and 10,000 businesses worldwide. Under the agreement, Bottomline will connect its existing systems to public and private blockchains through Chainlink’s infrastructure, according to Chainlink’s announcement.

The integration will use two Chainlink products. The Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, has been live since July 2023 and now spans more than 60 blockchains, where it supports the movement of tokenized value between networks. Chainlink Runtime Environment, or CRE, will coordinate what the company calls “payment workflows end-to-end,” including routing and confirmations.

Banks will continue sending the ISO 20022 messages they already use. The standard for cross-border payment instructions reached 97% adoption following a November 2025 switchover. Chainlink’s infrastructure will operate as a connector between existing payment systems and blockchains rather than as a replacement for those systems. Neither Bottomline nor Chainlink has disclosed a go-live date or identified a pilot bank.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, was down about 1% and remained below $80,000 after a strong August rally produced gains of more than 20% over the previous 30 days. The cryptocurrency was rejected at $82,000 twice during the past two weeks and opened the week below its 50-week moving average, which was near $81,000. Bitcoin lost that moving average in May.

The asset is also trading in a compression zone after a major late-August move. Analysts are weighing whether the setup could precede a continuation of the upward trend or form a so-called Bart Simpson pattern, a market structure associated with a sharp decline toward approximately $65,000 over several days.

Traders are also monitoring fresh inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s September 16 interest-rate decision. A stronger-than-expected August jobs report released Friday increased the odds of a rate hike.

Chainlink’s links to SWIFT

The Bottomline agreement follows earlier SWIFT interoperability testing involving Chainlink. In 2023, SWIFT conducted experiments with Chainlink and more than 10 institutions, including Citi and BNY Mellon, to move tokenized assets onto Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet. SWIFT also referenced the earlier work in a post on X.

Last month, Standard Chartered included SWIFT among the institutions already using Chainlink services when it set a $200 price target for LINK by 2030 and cited Chainlink’s $110 billion in secured value. The figure and target were part of the bank’s stated analysis.

In late August, financial services company Charles Schwab announced plans to expand its retail cryptocurrency trading offering beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. The brokerage selected Solana, Avalanche, and Chainlink as the three additional assets to list on its trading platform, according to Decrypt’s report.

Together, these developments coincide with LINK’s recent outperformance. The token was up 57% over the previous 30 days, surpassing nearly every other cryptocurrency in the top 20 by market capitalization except Zcash.

Source: Decrypt.