Chainlink Whales Keep Stacking—But Where’s the Price Action?
Something’s happening with Chainlink, though you wouldn’t know it from the price. While retail traders seem to be sitting this one out, big holders—call them whales if you want—have been quietly loading up on LINK. According to data from CryptoQuant, wallets holding between 100,000 and 1 million tokens now control over 85 million LINK, the highest level since late 2022.
But here’s the odd part: all that accumulation hasn’t really moved the needle. LINK’s price has been stuck in a tight range, bouncing between roughly $12.75 and $14 for the past week. As of today, it’s hovering around $13.48, down a bit from yesterday and still below where it was a month ago.
Why Aren’t Retail Traders Jumping In?
It’s hard to say. Maybe they’re waiting for clearer signals, or maybe the broader market’s sluggishness has kept them on the sidelines. Axel Adler, who wrote the CryptoQuant report, calls it a “standoff” between whales and smaller investors. Either way, the lack of retail participation makes this an unusual situation. Usually, when big players pile in, others follow. Not this time—at least not yet.
That doesn’t mean Chainlink’s fundamentals are weak. Far from it. The project just landed a major partnership with Mastercard, which could eventually let millions of cardholders buy crypto on-chain using Chainlink’s infrastructure. And a few days later, the xStocks Alliance picked Chainlink as its go-to oracle provider, bringing tokenized stocks and ETFs into DeFi. Those are big deals, even if the market hasn’t fully reacted.
What’s Next for LINK’s Price?
Technically, things look… indecisive. The Bollinger Bands are tightening, which often means a bigger move is coming, but the direction isn’t clear. LINK’s sitting just below the midline of those bands, with $14.10 acting as resistance and $13.08 as support. The RSI is neutral, and the MACD hints at slight bullishness, but it’s nothing dramatic.
Short-term, LINK’s holding above its 10-day and 20-day moving averages, which is a decent sign. But the longer-term averages—100-day and 200-day—are still overhead, reminding us that the broader trend hasn’t turned yet.
If LINK can push past $14.10 with solid volume, $15 might be the next stop. But if it slips below $13, we could see a drop toward $12.50. Right now, it feels like the market’s holding its breath, waiting to see who blinks first: the whales or the retail crowd.
For what it’s worth, history suggests that when whales accumulate like this, something usually happens. The question is when—and which way.
