Chainlink CPO Says ‘We’re Powering Nations’ as LINK Price Readies for Next Bullish Leg
At SmartCon 2025, Chainlink announced advancements in blockchain infrastructure and partnerships, emphasizing national-scale solutions and compliance integration. Apurva Joshi, CPO, highlighted the network's evolution and collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce and SEC to streamline on-chain finance and regulations. Key innovations include the Automated Compliance Engine (ACE) ecosystem, Confidential Compute for privacy-preserving applications, and institutional-grade stablecoin solutions tested alongside the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Meanwhile, LINK token projections suggest a potential rise, supported by Chainlink's expanding ecosystem and DeFi growth expectations.
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Chainlink’s Vision and Announcement at SmartCon 2025
Joshi, Chainlink’s Chief Product Officer (CPO), highlighted during the flagship event SmartCon 2025 that the company is transitioning from powering individual protocols to supporting national-level infrastructure. In his keynote speech, Joshi stated: “We’ve been powering protocols, then markets, now nations. That is what winning looks like.” This vision aligns with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to collaborate with Chainlink, bringing macroeconomic data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on-chain.
Bridging Traditional Finance and Web3 Ecosystem
The SmartCon 2025 event, held on November 4–5, 2025, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, brought together government officials, traditional finance experts, and Web3 leaders. Under the theme of “bridging on-chain and off-chain finance”, discussions included the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), inter-chain settlements, and bridging TradFi (Traditional Finance) with DeFi (Decentralized Finance).
Introducing Chainlink’s ACE Ecosystem
Prior to the event, Chainlink announced the Chainlink Automated Compliance Engine (ACE), a breakthrough compliance partner ecosystem consisting of 20+ leading providers such as Persona, Proof, SumSub, and Veridian. This framework aims to standardize on-chain compliance, enabling identity verification, risk assessment, and regulatory adherence. ACE establishes itself as the de facto standard for blockchain-based compliance workflows, facilitating seamless integration of compliance services.
Collaboration with Apex Group and Bermuda Monetary Authority
Chainlink, together with Apex Group, concluded a pilot program to develop institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure. This pilot, conducted in partnership with the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), utilized Chainlink services such as CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol), ACE, and Proof of Reserve (PoR) to enhance stability and trust in cryptocurrency solutions for financial institutions.
Announcing Chainlink Confidential Compute
At SmartCon, Chainlink introduced Chainlink Confidential Compute (CCC), a groundbreaking service designed to enable privacy-preserving smart contracts on any blockchain. CCC facilitates private transactions, confidential data distribution, and compliance-focused workflows. Backed by the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), CCC supports privacy-preserving tokenization of real-world assets and regulatory use cases. The early access version of CCC is set to launch in early 2026.
LINK Token Price and Analyst Predictions
Currently trading at $15.42, the native token LINK has experienced price volatility, declining 4.4% in the last 24 hours but gaining 3.7% over the past week. Prominent analysts have weighed in: Michaël van de Poppe views this as “a great spot to accumulate $LINK” with predicted gains driven by a strong DeFi adoption move in 2026. Meanwhile, Jordan, another investor, speculates a potential price surge to above $100 by year-end 2025. Analyst Ali Martinez identifies the $13–$26 range as a key “no-trade zone.”