Chainlink’s LINK Reclaims $29, Whales and Sharks Lead the Surge

Chainlink (LINK) has recently surpassed $29, marking its highest value in 37 months. Over the past week, it recorded a 21% increase, establishing itself as one of the strongest-performing altcoins in recent weeks.

This price surge has been attributed to significant accumulation by large holders, as highlighted by Santiment. In the last two months, wallets holding 100K or more LINK added 5.69 million tokens, while smaller wallets offloaded 5.67 million. Such trends, where larger holders accumulate from smaller retail traders, are often associated with potential future growth.

Related: Microsoft Says No to Bitcoin, Citing BTC’s Volatility as a Negative Factor

LINK total price. Source: CoinMarketCap

Chainlink’s Fundamental Remain Strong

The recent rally was also influenced by World Liberty Financial, backed by the Trump family, which increased its LINK holdings to $2 million. The platform, heavily reliant on Chainlink’s data and cross-chain services, now ranks LINK as its fourth-largest holding.

Moving on, the value surge was accompanied by a record-high Futures Open Interest (OI) of $770.27 million, indicating heightened trading activity. 

Additionally, $35.57 million in realized profits were recorded in the spot market, making it the second-largest profit-taking event of 2024. This activity was led by short-term and ultra-short-term holders, reflecting speculative behavior.

Despite profit-taking, Chainlink’s fundamentals remain strong. Active address counts continue to rise, signaling sustained interest and long-term growth potential, though the activity still lags behind the highs seen in 2021.

Other Altcoins on the Rise

Besides Chainlink, projects Aave (AAVE), Ondo Finance (ONDO) and Sui Network (SUI) have seen their coins surge in value as the overall market benefits from Bitcoin’s rally to $100K.

Related: Vancouver City Council Approves Bitcoin Passes Motion to Explore Bitcoin as Hedge Against InflationAccording to data from DefiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) across the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) market has surpassed $136B, shy of its all-time high of $177B.