Chainlink Unlocks 11.25 Million LINK Tokens, Potential Price Impact

While crypto markets strive to sustain their bull runs, Chainlink has unlocked millions of LINK tokens, an incident that has attracted attention.

Spot on Chain identified Chainlink unlocking another 11.25 million LINK tokens a few hours ago today early morning. As per the on-chain metrics tracker, Chainlink sent the majority of the coins to Binance, 10.625 million LINK tokens (worth $243.5 million). Another 625 LINK tokens (worth $14.4 million) were unlocked to multi-sig wallet). 

Spot on Chain disclosed that since August 2022, Chainlink has unlocked 157 million (worth $1.73 billion). Out of these coins, Chainlink directly deposited 136.5 million LINK tokens ($1.52 billion) to Binance at an average price of $11.1.

It still holds 361.5 million LINK coins (valued at $8.45 billion) across 15 non-circulating supply contracts, data revealed.

LINK’s massive unlocking could cause a price drop

Crypto investors need to brace themselves as new Chainlink tokens flood into the market. As part of its regular unlocks, Chainlink unlocks millions of LINK tokens to increase the circulating supply.

However, this activity normally raises concerns among the crypto community about a potential price plunge. Currently, LINK is down, similar to the rest of the broader market, with its price dropping 20.6% in the last seven days.

Due to such massive tokens hitting exchanges, token holders could take precautionary measures to liquidate their assets, as they might fear a possible price decline. The increase in circulation supply could further decrease LINK’s price soon.

The unlock appears to have caused a further plunge in LINK, as the value of the assets is currently down 0.9% in the last one hour, at the time of writing.

LINK experiencing short price correction

Of late, the wider crypto market has been volatile as LINK and other tokens have taken a dip. BTC is currently trading at $97,512.60, down 4.5% in the last seven days.

LINK price is facing a short-term decline, as its value has been down 8.9% in the last two weeks. However, the risk factor seems to have reached a peak. This might lead to a possible anticipation for the asset to see another potential positive momentum, boosted by recent whales’ activity.

Five days ago, a big investor withdrew a whopping 529,999 LINK tokens worth $15.5 million from Binance. However, the activity raised concerns about the whale’s intentions with such enormous movement.

Normally, such big transfers of funds decrease market liquidity and thus act as an indicator of strategic positioning. Big investors withdrawing assets from centralized exchanges signals that they are getting prepared to hold them for the long term or planning to use them in the DeFi markets.

In recent past few days, Chainlink holders enjoyed bolstered prices when the crypto DeFi project associated with President Donald Trump bought a massive amount of LINK tokens. Last week, the DeFi project purchased a staggering $2 million worth of LINK tokens, triggering rumors that Chainlink would play a key role in the growing DeFi landscape.

Such activity could lower the selling pressure on exchanges and positively impact the price of Chainlink indirectly. Large token holders’ withdrawal behaviors indicate further evidence that whales have greater confidence in the token and its long-term potential.