23 June 2024
The cryptocurrency market witnessed severe bearish pressure over the past week, and the price of Chainlink (LINK) wasn’t an exception. The altcoin has continued to struggle with its torrid form, losing nearly 10% of its value in the last seven days.
Interestingly, the bears seem to still be in control at the moment, with the latest on-chain revelation suggesting that there might be further downside for the LINK price over the next few days.
Are Chainlink Investors Offloading Their Assets?
Popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed in a post on the X platform that huge amounts of the Chainlink token have made their way to centralized exchanges in the past day. This on-chain observation is based on Santiment’s “Supply on Exchanges” metric, which tracks the amount of a particular cryptocurrency being held on centralized exchanges.
When this metric’s value increases, it implies that investors are making more deposits than withdrawals of a cryptocurrency (Chainlink, in this case) into centralized exchanges. A decrease in the metric’s value, on the other hand, indicates that holders are moving their coins out of the trading platforms.
According to data from Santiment, more than 18.77 million LINK (worth roughly $256.2 million) were transferred to cryptocurrency exchanges in the past day. This substantial transfer represents one of the largest single-day movements for the Chainlink token in recent months.
Interestingly, a report from SpotOnChain revealed that 21 million tokens were unlocked from Chainlink’s non-circulating supply contracts on Friday, June 21. Specifically, the contract transferred 2.25 LINK tokens were sent to the multi-sig wallet 0xD50f
More notably, 18.25 million LINK tokens were sent to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. This significant token unlock presents a case of supply inflation, which can impact the value of the token especially if a sell-off occurs.
Moreover, these fund movements can precipitate an increase in market volatility and possibly lead to price fluctuations. Given the magnitude and destination of these transfers, there is a greater likelihood of increased selling pressure, which can drive down the price of LINK.
Is A Return To $12 On The Cards?
As of this writing, the price of Chainlink is barely holding above $13.6, having declined by more than 3% in the past day. Meanwhile, the altcoin slumped 9% from about $15 to $13.5 over the past week, according to data from CoinGecko.
If the recent selling pressure continues, then further decline might be on the horizon for LINK’s price. This could see the cryptocurrency make a return to around the $12 price zone for the first time in more than a month.
Nevertheless, the Chainlink token ranks amongst the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies in the sector, with a market capitalization of over $8.27 billion.