crypto

Sage D. Young6/24/25

Chainlink springs on partnership with Mastercard

On Tuesday, Chainlink announced a partnership to allow Mastercard’s roughly 3 billion global cardholders to “purchase crypto assets directly on-chain through a secure fiat-to-crypto conversion.”

Chainlink is a piece of crypto infrastructure that aims to provide real-world information to blockchain networks. Its native cryptocurrency has increased 11.7% in the last 24 hours, making it one of the top performers among cryptocurrencies.

“People want to be able to easily connect to the digital assets ecosystem, and vice versa,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, said in the release. “In coming together with Chainlink, we’re unlocking a secure and innovative way to revolutionize on-chain commerce and drive the broader adoption of crypto assets.”

The announcement comes as Mastercard is increasingly expanding into the crypto world. Mastercard also revealed today its integration with fintech firm Fiserv’s newly launched stablecoin. Last month, the payments giant teamed up with crypto service provider MoonPay to allow cardholders to spend their stablecoins in Mastercard’s over 150 million locations, and in April, Mastercard linked arms with Kraken to launch physical and digital debit cards for the crypto exchange.

More Crypto

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy9h

Crypto liquidations reached $1.2 billion in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data, as bitcoin continued its downward trajectory. Bitcoin suffered $458.24 million in liquidations, with the bulk of them — over $334 million — in long positions. Meanwhile, the second-biggest crypto, ethereum, saw the second-biggest figure for liquidations yesterday, with $278 million.

Bitcoin slipped as far as $103,856 early Friday morning, its lowest level since July, and is down 13% in the past seven days. The sell-off dragged the total crypto market cap down to $3.67 trillion, down 5.5%. Underscoring the market anxiety, CoinMarketCap’s fear and greed index is now at 28.

Bitcoin ETFs also suffered, registering $536 million in outflows on Thursday. The Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF took the biggest hit, with $275.15 million in outflows. Since Monday, bitcoin ETFs have seen $864.5 million in outflows.

Maja Vujinovic, CEO and cofounder of digital assets at FG Nexus, told Sherwood News that bitcoin’s slump looks like a classic risk-off chain reaction.

“Credit jitters and trade tensions pushed money into gold at record highs while leveraged crypto longs were forced to unwind. Once the liquidations exhaust and policy fog clears, the same macro buyers chasing safety today are likely to hunt value in BTC again,” Vujinovic said.

SharpLink Gaming announces $76.5 million capital raise and potential to more than double that

An analyst noted that “flows and positioning, not fundamentals, are shaping the ETH story right now.”

Money in fist

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Desperately Seeking Uptober

Bitcoin drops below $110,000, while treasuries slow down acquisitions

Glassnode analysts wrote that “the market is in a reset phase.”

Bitcoin sign balloon deflated

Ethereum ETFs flip black as the token rebounds above $4,000

SharpLink Gaming generated 488 ethereum tokens worth about $2 million from staking last week, while ETHZilla announced a reverse stock split at a 1-for-10 ratio.

Two Basketball Players

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy10/15/25

The US government seized 127,271 bitcoin, worth $15 billion, in what it calls the Department of Justice’s “largest ever forfeiture action.”

The indictment against Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group, alleges that he engaged in wire fraud conspiracy using forced labor in Cambodia.

“Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as ‘pig butchering’ scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world. The defendant is at large,” according to a DOJ press release.

This is “exactly the kind of outcome the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was designed to enable,” Zack Shapiro, managing partner at Rains Law and head of policy of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, said on X.

This significantly increases the size of the US’s strategic reserve, which held over 197,000 bitcoin before the seizure. As of today, Arkham Intelligence data shows it’s holding 324,780 bitcoin, worth over $37 billion.

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