Key Highlights
- LINK falls nearly 50%, but whales quietly buy under $13, signaling smart money sees long-term potential despite retail panic.
- Top 100 LINK wallets added 16.1M tokens since November, showing steady accumulation even as price stays range-bound.
- Technical indicators show more selling pressure than buying, but large holders and futures traders remain bullish on LINK.
Chainlink (LINK) is under intense scrutiny as its price dropped nearly 50% over the past year. As retail traders sell off amid fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), the top 100 LINK whales are quietly increasing their holdings.
At the time of writing, LINK was trading at $12.57, down 1.52% in the last 24 hours, with a $321 million trading volume, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The broader crypto market has also dipped, with the total capitalization at $3.07 trillion, down 1.94% in a day, while total trading volume fell by 8.33% to $99.96 billion.
As the price slipped below the $13 psychological floor—marking a nearly 50% retracement from 2025 highs—retail sentiment has turned “extreme fear.” Yet, on-chain data reveals a different story, the whales have quietly accumulated 16.1 million LINK tokens since November.
Despite the fact that the price is range-bound, these significant holders continually boost their holdings in preparation for a possible positive trend. However, one of Binance’s wallets alone has in excess of 52 million LINK, which is equivalent to 5.2% of the LINK supply. Another non-exchange wallet also possesses close to 41 million, with two other wallets having 30 million each.
Accumulation trends and market behavior
On-chain data reveals a mixed trend. The Accumulation/Distribution (Accum/Dist) line has been flat around 369.68 million, which indicates slow accumulation and distribution. Also, the On-Balance Volume (OBV) indicator has been moving down at 316.92 million. The Accumulation/Distribution (A/D) line is usually used to show if investors are buying or selling, while OBV tracks volume flow with price moves.
Despite this, long positions remain a favorite among traders. Binance traders registered a 2.01 ratio for their long/short position according to Coinglass data. The top traders on Binance are more optimistic with a figure of 2.56. OKX traders also register a strong ratio of 2.84 in favor of the long position.
Nevertheless, liquidations give insight into potential dangers for trading over shorter time frames. Over the last 24 hours, long contracts lost $217.54K more than shorts by $3.3K. The same is observed over smaller time frames. For instance, there is more risk involved in the long contracts since retail investors tend to act impulsively.
MEXC and Binance lead LINK futures
Most Chainlink futures trading happens on MEXC and Binance, which dominate the market. CoinGlass data shows MEXC handles about $205 million, while Binance sees $150 million in trades. Other exchanges like OKX, Bybit, and WhiteBIT have much smaller activity, around $36–$50 million. Smaller platforms such as LBank and Gate trade under $16 million, showing that most of the action is concentrated on just a few big exchanges.
Although there are price fluctuations in the short term, there is potential for the long term as well. Analyst Quinten Francois said, “Some people are interested in the tech and are enthusiastic about projects such as Chainlink, which are revolutionizing the financial world.” He explained that instead of focusing on price fluctuations, one should look at the innovation brought by Chainlink.
Large Chainlink holders are buying more as smaller traders sell in reaction to fear. Short-term losses are affecting retail traders, while long-term investors focus on the project itself. The pattern suggests experienced holders expect future price changes, making current lower levels a point of increased activity.
Also Read: The 4-Year Cycle is Dead, It’s All About Liquidity Now: Wintermute
