Original author: Yuliya
Reprint: Daisy, Mars Finance
As RWA tokenization and institutional adoption become the core narrative of this bull market, Chainlink, as a key infrastructure connecting traditional finance to the digital world, is poised to be the biggest winner. Miles Deutscher points out that Chainlink is not just a project; its value capture mechanism has created a strong 'flywheel effect'—the growth in network usage will directly translate into sustained buying pressure and value accumulation for $LINK tokens.
Notably, the recently launched '$LINK Reserve' mechanism by Chainlink has allowed the market to witness the true driving force of the 'flywheel effect.' This mechanism automatically converts and accumulates revenue from corporate collaborations and on-chain services into $LINK tokens, thus directly linking the network's fundamental growth to the token's value. Since the announcement, the price of $LINK tokens has surged nearly 50%. Below is the original text of the article, compiled by PANews.
$LINK may be one of the most obvious large-cap investment opportunities in this cycle, but most people may miss it. It is the biggest winner benefiting from the institutionalization of cryptocurrencies and the explosive growth of stablecoins, tokenization, and RWA (Real World Assets).
This bull market is highly aligned with the narrative of Chainlink, mainly due to the following reasons:
Alignment of Macro Trends
The total locked value of RWA has surged 13 times in the past two years, growing from about $1 billion to over $13 billion, becoming one of the strongest growth sectors in the crypto space.
Institutions have recognized that the traditional SWIFT system is slow and inefficient, unwilling to face the pain points of fragmented performance, and instead hope to use a complete end-to-end platform. This is why Wall Street giants like BlackRock are actively promoting asset tokenization and why companies like Stripe (which launched the Tempo chain) and Circle (which launched the ARC chain) are building their own blockchains.
In a fragmented, multi-chain landscape, there is a need for a 'universal translator' to achieve interoperability, and Chainlink is providing this solution. Any tokenized stocks, bonds, or real estate require oracles to bring their value on-chain, and $LINK is the market leader, with an Oracle market share of 84% on Ethereum alone, making it a core infrastructure for this multi-trillion-dollar transformation.
It is currently difficult to predict which L1 public chain will emerge victorious, especially with many enterprise chains entering the market, and it is also uncertain which RWA application will stand out. However, it can be confirmed that Chainlink is powering all of this, becoming the most typical 'gold rush shovel' investment target.
For a long time, the market generally believed that XRP would become the representative of institutional adoption, but in many ways, LINK has an even higher level of implementation in this field than XRP, and considering valuation, its upside potential is more attractive.
Data Comparison
XRPL DeFi TVL approximately $85 million
Chainlink Total Value Secured approximately $84.65 billion
Chainlink has over 1000 times more capital locked on-chain than XRPL, and its market share in the entire DeFi sector is continually increasing, currently reaching 68%. Despite this, XRP's market cap is still about 12.1 times that of LINK, making LINK's value in the current price range appear more attractive.
It is noteworthy that, besides Bitcoin and Ethereum, Chainlink is also far ahead of any other protocol in terms of adoption in the traditional finance (TradFi) sector, having been integrated by multiple TradFi giants, including:
SWIFT
DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation)
Euroclear
JPMorgan
Mastercard
Token Economics: Building the Value Flywheel
The value flow of the Chainlink network is primarily realized through the following methods, with two sources of income:
1. On-chain fees: When its services are used across different blockchain networks, on-chain fees are generated. These fees are used to fund network operations and repurchase $LINK tokens.
2. Corporate collaborations: Agreements with large companies and institutions such as SWIFT or JPMorgan, which pay to integrate Chainlink's solutions. A portion of the funds will go into the Chainlink reserve to support its long-term development.
Currently, the protocol will automatically convert all revenue (including fees from private chains such as $ETH or $USDC) into $LINK and deposit it into a strategic treasury.
Additionally, the staking mechanism is crucial. Users secure the network by locking $LINK and earn approximately 4.32% sustainable annual yield. This creates a continuous supply tightening mechanism, removing tokens from the public market.
This creates a permanent, automated buyback mechanism that directly converts the network's adoption rate into buying pressure, forming a powerful value flywheel:
Increased adoption → Increased revenue → More $LINK purchased and locked → Enhanced network security and resources → Improved utility
Technical Analysis and Summary
From a technical chart perspective, $LINK has broken through the $20 weekly resistance level. This price point has been an important bull-bear pivot for years, essentially equivalent to the $4000 level of ETH.
In summary, Chainlink's value can be understood this way: if AWS, Azure, and GCP (the three major cloud service providers) were spun off from their parent companies, their value would reach trillions of dollars. Chainlink is the foundational B2B infrastructure of the entire on-chain economy.
