As RWA tokenization and institutional adoption become the core narrative of this bull market, Chainlink, as the key infrastructure connecting traditional finance and the digital world, is poised to become the biggest winner. Miles Deutscher points out that Chainlink is not just a project; its value capture mechanism forms a powerful 'flywheel effect' — the growth of network usage will directly translate into sustained buying pressure and value accumulation for $LINK tokens.
It is noteworthy that Chainlink recently launched the '$LINK Reserve' mechanism, allowing the market to witness the real driving force of the 'flywheel effect'. This mechanism automatically converts and accumulates revenue from corporate collaborations and on-chain services into $LINK tokens, thereby directly linking the network's fundamental growth to the value of the token. Since the announcement, the price of $LINK tokens has risen by nearly 50%.
$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 cryptocurrency and the explosive growth of stablecoins, tokenization, and RWA (real-world assets).
This bull market aligns closely with the narrative of Chainlink, primarily due to the following reasons:
Alignment with macro trends
The total locked amount of RWA has surged 13 times over the past two years, growing from about $1 billion to over $13 billion, becoming one of the strongest growing segments in the crypto space.
Institutions have recognized that the traditional SWIFT system is slow and inefficient, unwilling to face the pain of fragmented performance, and prefer to use a complete end-to-end platform. This is also why Wall Street giants like BlackRock are actively promoting asset tokenization, and why companies like Stripe (launching the Tempo chain) and Circle (launching the ARC chain) are building their own blockchains.
In a fragmented, multi-chain landscape, a 'universal translator' is needed to achieve interoperability, and Chainlink is providing this solution. Any tokenized stocks, bonds, or real estate need oracles to bring their value on-chain, and $LINK is the market leader, holding an 84% market share in the Oracle market on Ethereum, serving as the core infrastructure for this multi-trillion dollar transformation.
It is currently difficult to predict which L1 public chain will win, especially in the context of numerous enterprise chains entering the market, and it is also uncertain which RWA application will stand out. But it can be confirmed that Chainlink is powering all of this, becoming the most typical 'gold rush shovel' type of investment target.
For a long time, the market has generally believed that XRP would become the representative of institutional adoption, but in many respects, LINK's penetration in this field is even higher than XRP's, and considering valuation, its upside potential is more attractive.
Data comparison
· XRPL DeFi TVL is approximately $85 million
· Total Value Secured (TVS) of Chainlink is approximately $84.65 billion
Chainlink has over 1000 times more capital locked on-chain than XRPL, and its market share in the entire DeFi space is continuously increasing, currently reaching 68%. Nevertheless, XRP's market capitalization is still about 12.1 times that of LINK, making LINK's value in the current price range appear more attractive.
It is worth noting that, apart from 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 several 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 means, 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 fund network operations and buy back $LINK tokens.
2. Corporate partnerships: Agreements with large companies and institutions such as SWIFT or JPMorgan, which pay to integrate Chainlink's solutions. Some of the funds will go into the Chainlink reserve to support its long-term development.
Currently, the protocol automatically converts all revenue (including fees from private chains in $ETH or $USDC) into $LINK and deposits it into a strategic treasury.
Moreover, the staking mechanism is also crucial. Users lock $LINK to secure the network and earn approximately 4.32% sustainable annual returns. This creates a continuous supply tightening mechanism that removes tokens from the open market.
This creates a permanent, automated buyback mechanism that directly translates the adoption rate of the network into buying pressure, forming a powerful value flywheel:
Adoption increases → Revenue rises → More $LINK is purchased and locked → Network security and resources enhanced → Utility improved
Technical analysis and summary
From a technical chart perspective, $LINK has already broken through the $20 weekly resistance zone. This price point has long been an important bullish-bearish inflection point, its significance is roughly equivalent to ETH's $4000 level.
In summary, Chainlink's value can be understood as follows: 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.
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