The Chainlink (LINK) cryptocurrency price has been trending higher since mid-December, with the protocol gaining momentum in decentralised finance (DeFi) and other decentralised applications (dApps).
Chainlink provides developers of blockchain applications with oracles that connect smart contracts with off-chain data and services such as price feeds. The oracles can be used across DeFi protocols, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and gaming apps to power new features and scalability.
The price for its native LINK token, which developers use to pay for the data and services, has been trending higher after bottoming out in mid-December after a drop from November’s cryptocurrency rally, even as other coins remain under pressure.
What has been supporting the LINK price and what do forecasts suggest about the direction of the price in the future? We look at the latest Chainlink news and predictions.
Chainlink oracles power decentralised apps
Chainlink was launched in 2017 by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis. They co-founded SmartContract in 2014, which connects smart contracts to external data and led to the development of Chainlink Labs. Chainlink provides oracle infrastructure and tools to developers to create scalable dApps using smart contracts on several blockchains and Layer 2 networks that run on top of blockchains.
“A blockchain oracle is a secure piece of middleware that facilitates communication between blockchains and any off-chain system, including data providers, web APIs, enterprise backends, cloud providers, IoT devices, e-signatures, payment systems, other blockchains, and more,” the Chainlink blog explains.
In April 2021, the Chainlink Labs team published a whitepaper setting out their view of the evolution of the Chainlink protocol, Chainlink 2.0. They wrote:
“We foresee an increasingly expansive role for oracle networks, one in which they complement and enhance existing and new blockchains by providing fast, reliable, and confidentiality-preserving universal connectivity and computation for hybrid smart contracts. We believe that oracle networks will even evolve to become utilities for exporting high-integrity blockchain-grade data to systems beyond the blockchain ecosystem.”
Chainlink operates across Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) chains, as well as the Solana and Terra blockchains, and is developing the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to support the growth of a multi-chain ecosystem.
At the end of 2021, there were more than 1,000 projects in the Chainlink ecosystem, with half of its integrations added during the past year. The network surpassed $75bn of total value secured (TVS), a tenfold increase from 2020. Chainlink supports more than 700 oracle networks, providing price feeds and other market data, weather data, sports statistics, and more.
The Chainlink Community Grant Program launched in July 2020. Its most recent investments in December include a grant to DLC.Link to bridge oracle data to discrete log contracts on the Bitcoin network, announced on 24 December, and a grant to development consultancy This Dot Labs to create an interactive map of the blockchain ecosystem, announced on 31 December. On 7 January, a grant was awarded to TheLinkMarine to rebuild the chainlinkecosystem.com resource and create a database of Chainlink integrations.
Some of the recent Chainlink integrations, announced in mid-December, include:
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MinecryptoMC, a play-to-earn server in the Minecraft game, using Chainlink to assign verifiably random purity ranks to NFTs
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Cryptocurrency exchange Kucoin using Chainlink price feeds to set floating rates for its over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
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Harmony offering Chainlink price oracles for DeFi developers
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Crosswise using Chainlink price feeds as circuit breakers for its decentralised exchange on the Binance chain to help mitigate slippage and data manipulation
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All-Art Protocol integrating Chainlink price feeds on Solana for exchange rates on its NFT marketplace SolSea and metaverse platform VR-All-Art
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AccuWeather providing premium weather data for on-chain applications such as parametric insurance and weather related dApps
The Chainlink cryptocurrency moved up to an intraday high price of $28.51 on 9 January, its highest level since a spike in November took the price up to $38.16. The LINK/USD price moved up from a low of $17.32 to $19.71 on 15 December and has been trending higher since. The coin’s all-time high price was set during the cryptocurrency rally in May 2021, when it reached $52.88, the price chart showed.
According to CoinMarketCap, there are 467 million LINK coins in circulation of a maximum supply of one billion, giving the cryptocurrency a market capitalisation of $12.4bn, at the time of writing (10 January), with the coin trading at $26.62, and ranking it the 16th largest by value.
Is there potential for the price to return to the all-time high, or will it remain within a lower range? Let’s look at the latest price predictions.
Chainlink price prediction: can LINK regain its previous highs?
Short-term technical analysis from CoinCodex was bullish at the time of writing on 10 January, with the LINK price around $27. There were 27 indicators giving bullish signals and two giving bearish signals. CoinCodex’s Chainlink analysis predicted that the price could rise by 4.74% to reach $28.23 by 15 January.
The Chainlink crypto price prediction from Wallet Investor estimated that LINK could rise to $33 by November, slip back to $30 in December and end the year at $31.373. The algorithm-based forecasting site predicted that the LINK price could follow a similar trend in 2023, peaking at the $43 level in November of that year before sliding to $41.738. The price could surpass the previous all-time high to reach $62.746 by the end of 2025 and $73.269 at the start of 2027.
The LINK coin price prediction from DigitalCoin forecast that the cryptocurrency could average $36.11 in 2022 and $42.32 in 2023, rising to $58.11 in 2025 and $77.11 in 2027. By 2029, the LINK price could average $115.58, based on analysis of historical data.
Price Prediction was more bullish in its Chainlink price forecast, estimating that the coin could average $38.69 in 2022 and $59 in 2023, climbing to $121 in 2025 and $761.09 by 2030.
Gov Capital predicted that LINK could trade at $46.658 by the end of 2022 and reach $81.446 by the end of 2023, reaching $179.729 by the end of 2025. The site’s deep learning technical analysis suggested that the LINK price could rise to $239.871 by January 2027, the data shows.
It’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts and algorithm-based forecasters can and do get their predictions wrong.
We recommend that you always do your own research, and consider the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decision. Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns. And never invest more than you can afford to lose.
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