Chainlink Defies Crypto Market Slump

Decentralized oracle provider Chainlink is looking like one of the winners in the recent crypto rout. Its token LINK has risen by 20% in the last 24 hours, in contrast to much of the market. 

The price of LINK rose from $9.79 on Sunday morning to $13.16 earlier today, before falling to its current level of around $12, according to data from TradingView.

The LINK/USD pair saw a record high of $19.20 on August 15, cementing Chainlink’s position as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency ranked by market cap, following a 1,000% rally.

What is Chainlink?

Chainlink provides decentralized oracles for price feeds and other data which must be accessed off-chain. It’s integrated into a number of prominent DeFi projects, like decentralized crypto lending dapp Aave, synthetic asset portal Synthetix, and token swap platform Kyber Network. The protocol is swiftly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the emerging oracle sector. 

Chainlink has been building an enviable ecosystem of integrations—and now boasts around 200. It’s also notable for expanding outside the realms of Ethereum-based projects, to Polkadot and Tezos, as well as forming many non-blockchain partnerships and initiatives, with the likes of Swift and Google. 

DeFi growth is fuelled by oracles, says Chainlink founder

Yield farmers gunning for 1000% gains are driving a boom in decentralized finance (DeFi), with $3 billion poured into DeFi applications since the start of the year. In response to rocketing demand, new financial tools built on blockchains like Ethereum and Cosmos are launching every day, automating investing, lending, borrowing, and trading arrangements.  That means a rising ocean of data must be digested by smart contracts, which secure billions in value. They, in turn, rely on secure and reli...

Recently, it even (briefly) gained a celebrity fan in the shape of Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy. 

But it’s also faced competition from the likes of Band Protocol, based on the Cosmos ecosystem. Band itself saw a recent price surge after announcing a partnership with the Tron Foundation to integrate its oracles into Tron’s decentralized applications.

The rivalry between Band and Chainlink has been heating up in recent weeks. 

As regards LINK, sentiment indicates a crucial period, with many watching the price as it hovers around the $12 mark.

But, like most cryptocurrencies, its price may be less to do with the project’s technical merits than the behavior of the crypto market as a whole.