Bottomline taps Chainlink to bring blockchain payments to 600 banks

Bottomline has partnered with Chainlink to connect a payments network processing more than $16 trillion annually with public and private blockchains, giving over 600 bank customers a route to cross-chain and cross-border settlement while retaining ISO 20022 messaging.

According to Chainlink, Bottomline will use its interoperability and orchestration infrastructure to connect existing payment systems with blockchain networks, allowing participating financial institutions to access onchain payment rails through a single network-agnostic connection.

Bottomline ranks among the top three Swift service providers and handles more than $16 trillion in payments each year across its platforms. The company serves over 600 banks, 1,200 financial institutions and 10,000 businesses globally, giving the integration access to an established network already processing large volumes of institutional payments.

Banks using the service would not need to replace their existing messaging systems to access blockchain settlement. Payment instructions can continue to use ISO 20022, the standard used by financial institutions to structure and exchange transaction information, while Chainlink connects the instruction with the required blockchain infrastructure.

Chainlink will connect Bottomline payments across blockchains

Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, will handle communication and transfers of tokenized value across supported blockchain networks.

Its Chainlink Runtime Environment, known as CRE, will coordinate payment workflows from one end of a transaction to the other. The infrastructure can manage routing and operational steps as payment instructions move between existing financial systems and blockchain networks.

Using both components gives Bottomline customers access to multiple public and private chains through one connection instead of requiring separate infrastructure for each blockchain.

The setup means a participating bank could send an instruction through the same ISO 20022 messaging process it already uses. Chainlink infrastructure would then handle the blockchain components needed to execute the transaction across the selected networks.

Chainlink has spent the past several years developing CCIP as an interoperability layer for applications that need to transfer data or assets across separate blockchains. In July, Aave made CCIP its default cross-chain infrastructure for deposits, withdrawals, GHO transfers, Stable Vaults and governance operations.

BitGo followed in August by selecting CCIP as the exclusive cross-chain provider for its Wrapped Bitcoin ecosystem, which had roughly $7.3 billion in value at the time. BitGo retained control over WBTC contracts, transfer limits and cross-chain settings under the arrangement.

Bottomline banks can keep using ISO 20022

The Bottomline partnership is structured around maintaining the systems that banks already use instead of requiring financial institutions to move payment operations directly onto a particular blockchain.

For its more than 600 banking customers, Bottomline can keep the existing messaging layer in place while Chainlink operates between traditional payment infrastructure and the blockchain used for settlement.

Cross-border payments remain one of the areas targeted by the integration. Such transactions can move through several intermediary banks before reaching the recipient, adding settlement time and transaction costs at different stages of the payment process.

The supplied partnership material said cross-border transactions can still take days to settle and fees can consume 5% or more of a transfer’s value. Chainlink and Bottomline are providing an alternative settlement route in which tokenized value can move between blockchain networks while banks retain their existing operational processes.

Access to the infrastructure does not mean Bottomline’s more than $16 trillion in annual payment volume will move onchain. The partnership creates the technical connection for participating banks, while individual institutions will determine whether they use blockchain settlement and how much transaction activity they route through it.

No transaction volume, implementation schedule or list of Bottomline banking customers using the blockchain connection was disclosed in the announcement.

Chainlink has been building links with major financial institutions

The agreement follows a series of Chainlink projects involving banks, asset managers and established financial market infrastructure.

In June, crypto.news previously reported that Swift, JPMorgan and UBS were among the financial institutions working with Chainlink infrastructure as companies tested tokenized assets, cross-chain settlement and connections between existing financial systems and blockchains.

Swift has previously tested Chainlink infrastructure for transferring tokenized value while allowing financial institutions to continue working with existing Swift systems. The model resembles the Bottomline integration by keeping familiar financial messaging infrastructure in place while blockchain technology operates underneath the transaction workflow.

Chainlink has pursued another institutional initiative through Project Pangea, which involves more than 50 financial institutions across Europe and South Korea. Participants collectively manage more than $10 trillion in assets, with the project focused on foreign exchange transactions and T+0 settlement, where trades can settle on the same day they are executed.

JPMorgan has used Chainlink in public blockchain settlement as well. In May 2025, the bank completed a transaction involving tokenized U.S. Treasuries through Ondo Finance and Chainlink, representing JPMorgan’s first settlement of a transaction on a public blockchain.

UBS has worked with Chainlink on tokenized fund infrastructure, including an onchain subscription and redemption workflow for a tokenized money market fund. Previous projects involving Swift, UBS and Chainlink have tested how tokenized funds could interact with existing fiat payment systems used by financial institutions.

Institutional use of the network has continued expanding into 2026. Standard Chartered identified Swift, DTCC, Euroclear, JPMorgan, Mastercard, UBS, Fidelity and S&P Global among institutions using Chainlink services in an August report.

The bank’s digital asset research team said customers outside crypto-native markets were expected to account for an increasing portion of Chainlink fees as tokenization projects moved from testing into production.

Bottomline partnership adds another route for tokenized payments

Financial institutions have been testing several models for moving regulated money and assets onto blockchain infrastructure, ranging from stablecoins and tokenized deposits to tokenized securities and cross-chain settlement systems.

In July, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were reported to be developing a shared tokenized deposit network designed to support round-the-clock blockchain payments between regulated U.S. banks. The project, being developed with The Clearing House, has targeted the first half of 2027 for launch.

Chainlink’s role focuses on connecting otherwise separate blockchain networks and coordinating transactions between onchain systems and existing financial infrastructure.

CCIP has been live since July 2023 and has expanded across dozens of blockchain networks. Chainlink said its interoperability technology allows financial institutions to connect with multiple networks without building a different integration for every chain.

The Bottomline arrangement applies that infrastructure to a payment provider operating at a considerably larger scale than a single blockchain application. Bottomline processes more than $16 trillion annually, while its services reach hundreds of banks that already use established financial messaging standards.

Tokenization has meanwhile become a larger focus for banks and asset managers as more financial products are issued or represented on blockchains. Estimates cited in the supplied material put the potential tokenized asset market at $16 trillion by 2030.

Chainlink has been positioning CCIP and CRE as infrastructure for that activity, with CCIP handling communication and token transfers between networks while CRE coordinates the transaction workflow surrounding those transfers.

Bottomline customers will retain control over whether they use the blockchain connection. The partnership provides the infrastructure required to access public and private networks through existing payment systems, but neither company has disclosed how many banks have committed to using the service or when the first transactions will be settled through the new connection.