Whale and shark activity pushes Chainlink (LINK) above $29 for first time in 37 months

Chainlink (LINK) recently broke the $29 mark for the first time in 37 months. Over the past week, the native token of the decentralized oracle network posted a 21% gain.

As a result, LINK has become one of the best performing altcoins in recent weeks.

Link of the whale and the shark

The increase is largely fueled by a significant increase in the stocking of whales and sharks, according to Santiment’s latest analysis.

Over the past two months, wallets with 100K or more LINKs have added 5.69 million tokens, while wallets with less than 100K LINKs have reduced their positions by 5.67 million tokens. Historically, these patterns, where large wallets hoard coins from impatient or panicked retail traders, often indicate future growth.

However, the success of Chainlink and other large-cap altcoins still depends on Bitcoin’s ability to maintain its momentum, the crypto analytics platform Chainlink said in its findings. If Bitcoin remains stable, there are strong indications that patient LINK holders will see long-term rewards.

The recent price increase can also be attributed, in part, to World Liberty Financial’s $1 million purchase of LINK, increasing its holdings to $2 million. Backed by the Trump family, the platform also holds significant amounts of Aave’s AAVE, and LINK is now its fourth holding after Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT). World Liberty Financial uses Chainlink services for essential pricing data and cross-chain interoperability.

LINK Futures OI Hits All-Time High

This increase in value also coincided with a notable increase in futures open interest (OI). According to Glassnode, this number has reached an all-time high of $770.27 million, indicating a massive increase in trading activity.

There has also been significant profit-taking in the spot market, with $35.57 million in profits taken, making it the second-largest profit-taking event of the year, behind only the 40.39 million dollars from February 11. This activity was mainly driven by speculative market participants, with 15.3% of profits made by ultra-short-term holders (1d-1w) and 22.5% by short-term holders (3-6m).

Despite the profit-taking, LINK’s fundamentals are showing positive signs, with active addresses trending upwards, indicating continued interest and potential for future growth, albeit still below the 2021 high.

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