From decrypt by Vismaya V

Chainlink. Image: Shutterstock

Chainlink (LINK) has surged to its highest level since January 2022, reaching $29.45 on Thursday as demand for the asset from sophisticated investors continues to rise.

The decentralized oracle network posted a 20% gain over the last seven days and a 119% increase over the past month, making it one of the best-performing cryptos in recent weeks, according to CoinGecko data.

The rally comes as LINK’s futures open interest (OI) reached an all-time high of $770.27 million, Glassnode data shows. This figure dwarfed the OI of competitors such as Toncoin (TON) at $259 million and TRON (TRX) at $356 million.

Whale activity has been a key driver of LINK’s price momentum. Trump-backed World Liberty Financial purchased 41,335 LINK tokens worth $1 million at an average price of $24.19, on-chain data shows.

  Chainlink’s expanding ecosystem and latest partnerships have been another significant factor. Launching its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) on the Ronin network, the feature facilitates token transfers between Ethereum, Ronin, and Coinbase incubated Base blockchain. 

Emirates NBD, one of the largest banks in the UAE, partnered with Chainlink to enhance digital asset tokenization. Similarly, Coinbase’s Project Diamond integrated Chainlink to provide infrastructure for tokenized asset management.

In addition, Chainlink’s collaboration with SWIFT introduced an institutional payment solution, while WLFI adopted Chainlink’s standard for secure on-chain data and cross-chain connectivity. 

“Chainlink, closely tied to Ethereum, is a leader in blockchain interoperability,” Arthur Azizov, CEO of B2BINPAY, told Decrypt.  “Notably, it leads the Top 10 ERC-20 crypto projects in developer activity over the past 30 days.” 

Chainlink, in partnership with 21Shares, is also launching an EU-regulated service for trading and settling tokenized securities, Azizov added.