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- As Chainlink rallied toward the start of the new week, LINK whales were accumulating the crypto, with data showing that wallets with over 100,000 tokens significantly increased their holdings.
- Chainlink holders have also been withdrawing their tokens from exchanges, including over $16 million from Binance in two days, reducing the token’s selling pressure.
Chainlink is among the tokens that started the new week on a high, surging by over 7% in the past day to trade above $21. This comes after the whales were observed accumulating the crypto, and LINK holders started to withdraw their tokens from exchanges aggressively.
LINK trades at $21.35 at press time, having gained 7.35% in the past day to surge from $19.99 and hit its highest price in two years. The token’s price rose as the rest of the market opened the week with gains, with BTC hitting a new all-time high above $71,000.
Chainlink’s price is supported by an influx of interest from traders in recent days. In the past 24 hours, its trading volume surged by 234% to hit $1.32 billion, levels last seen over two weeks ago.
Whales Stock Up On Chainlink (LINK)
A surge in interest from institutional investors has supported Chianlink’s recent ascent. According to data by Santiment, a blockchain intelligence platform, retail LINK owners—those between 100 and 100,000 tokens—have reduced their collective ownership over the past week.
However, most of this extra liquidity has been absorbed by the whales. As the graph below shows, wallets holding between 100,000 and 1 million tokens recorded an increase in their holdings in that period.
Whales have a significant influence on the price pattern of any token. When they accumulate a token, it signals confidence in its momentum; subsequently, by accumulating, they reduce the liquidity and selling pressure, which supports further price gains.
Aside from the whales, the overall LINK holders have been withdrawing their tokens from exchanges, further proving the community’s confidence in the token. Data from Lookonchain shows that eight wallets withdrew over 830,000 LINK tokens from Binance over the weekend, worth over $17 million at current prices.
Withdrawing tokens from exchanges reduces the supply and selling pressure on them, consequently leading to further price gains.
Chainlink’s appeal to institutional investors is most apparent with Grayscale’s Chainlink Trust (GLNK). The trust, which lets accredited investors purchase shares that signify a bet on the token, has been trading at a steep premium in recent weeks.
As one influencer revealed on X, the premium has gone as high as 750%. This means that every share of GLNK trades 7.5 times higher than the LINK token it signifies.
$GLNK is a Grayscale crypto trust trading at a +750% premium over its underlying holdings of $LINK
Why hasn’t this premium been arbitraged away?
Because when you issue new shares of $GLNK, you’re only allowed to sell them on the secondary market after waiting 12 months
— ChainLinkGod.eth (@ChainLinkGod) March 8, 2024
Grayscale’s products have been the default and the only way institutional investors can bet on crypto without getting involved directly. However, the Bitcoin spot ETFs approved in January (where Chainlink plays a major role) changed the game.
Should the SEC approve a Chainlink ETF, the GLNK owners would be left holding pricey shares of a trust that no one would be interested in, and they would have to sell them on the open market at a steep discount, which is what its Bitcoin trust holders have been doing in recent times.
