Chainlink leads the market with 61% weekly gain — What’s driving LINK price?

The Chainlink (LINK) token surged 61.3% from October 20 to October 25, reaching a maximum of $11.78, the highest point since May 2022. LINK price subsequently stabilized around $10.50, causing investors to question the sustainability of this trend. New price levels.

Notably, this surge coincides with Bitcoin’s (BTC) 23% gain over the same period. However, LINK’s performance stands out compared to Ethereum’s (ETH) 14% gain and Solana’s (SOL) 28% gain, signaling bullish sentiment towards Chainlink’s leading oracle and decentralized computing solution. increased.

Chainlink partnerships and integrations support rally

Several recent developments have helped LINK outperform its peers. Notably, Chainlink’s announcement of an upcoming native staking upgrade due in the coming months has attracted a lot of attention. The initial staking pool was a huge success, fill up In less than three hours, the planned expansion promises greater flexibility with staking withdrawals, improved security guarantees, and dynamic rewards.

Additionally, Chainlink’s integration with various blockchain networks has fueled optimism among LINK investors. For example, on October 15th, Chainlink disclose It provides services for Advanced Crypto Strategies DAO, a multi-chain yield optimizer and automated liquidity manager, and Equilibria, a yield booster for Pendle Finance.

As of October 22, the Chainlink service has Fusion Cobo Global (institutional-grade digital escrow solution), StaFi Protocol’s liquid staking solution for proof-of-stake chains, Thales Market, a derivatives platform on the Ethereum chain, and Xena Finance (providing 50x sustainability on Coinbase’s Base chain futures).

On October 24, telecom giant Vodafone made a major announcement, revealing that its digital asset division is participating in the Chainlink network as a node operator. This follows the completion of a proof-of-concept for cross-platform trade document exchange with Japanese trading and investment company Sumitomo Corporation.

FTX and Alameda Research bankruptcy fears dissipated

The price of LINK came under pressure after the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of FTX and Alameda Research cryptocurrencies on September 13. Initially, there were concerns that $3.4 billion worth of digital assets, including LINK, could be liquidated, sparking fears of a market collapse. However, recent wallet shifts related to bankrupt estates have been gradual and had little impact on prices.

Investor interest in LINK grew as concerns related to the bankruptcies of FTX and Alameda Research receded, and there was renewed interest in mid-cap altcoins as Bitcoin rose above $32,000 on October 23. As a result, demand for LINK’s leveraged long positions is at a three-month high, as shown by funding rates.

Positive funding rates indicate that longs (buyers) are looking to increase leverage, while the opposite occurs when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, resulting in negative funding rates.

It is worth noting that the current 8-hour rate of 0.014% equates to a cost of 0.3% over 7 days, which is not significant for traders establishing futures positions. Typically, when over-optimism leads to an imbalance, the ratio can easily exceed 1.0% weekly.

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Additionally, the number of active addresses in the Chainlink network has reached an 11-month high, according to data from Messari and Coinmetrics.

Interestingly, the previous peak occurred on November 7, 2022, when FTX exchange issues caused LINK price to reach a six-month high of $38.32. This coincides with concerns over withdrawals from the FTX exchange and the impact on its native token, FTT, following Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s decision to liquidate Binance’s FTT holdings.

The subsequent 30 days had a huge negative impact on LINK’s price, with the token plunging 51.7% to $18.50. Still, given the substantial growth of the LINK ecosystem and the huge advancements in Chainlink’s native staking solution, LINK enthusiasts have nothing to worry about this time around.