Brace yourself as new LINK tokens perpetually flood the market. Chainlink, as part of its periodical unlocks, recently unlocked 21 million LINK tokens, valued at $295 million, from five of its non-circulating supply contracts.
As noted by Spot On Chain, the majority of these tokens were sent to crypto exchange Binance, prompting speculation as to whether this could cascade into a dip in the price of Chainlink. These speculations have been further escalated, considering that Chainlink hasn’t been left behind in the wider market decline and is currently on an 8% decline in the past seven days.
LINK Continues Slipping Amidst Token Unlock
Like many crypto tokens, Chainlink has a token unlock schedule that ensures an annual LINK release rate of approximately 7% of the total circulating supply. The recent unlock saw the number of LINK tokens in circulation cross above 600 million for the first time. Immediately after the unlock, 18.25 million LINK tokens worth $265 million were immediately sent to Binance.
Another 2.25 million LINK tokens, valued at $31.3 million, were sent to a multisig wallet identified as 0xD50f. With such a vast supply hitting Binance, LINK holders might be tempted to exit their positions, fearing a potential price crash. This increase in demand could signal further declines in the price of LINK shortly.
Interestingly, the unlock seems to have contributed to a further decline in the price of LINK, which has struggled to find support amidst wider price declines. LINK has fallen by a further 1.4%.
Chainlink Further Declines To $10?
As Spot On Chain noted, the recent unlock makes it 127 million LINK tokens unlocked and 107.7 million LINK tokens sent to Binance since August 2022. However, the price has mostly stabilized during past unlocks, and it seems LINK investors are already familiar with these periodic unlocks and movement into Binance.
A look through the chart below shows that three of the last four unlocks preceded eventual price spikes for LINK. However, considering the current market conditions, we could see a different scenario play out.
At the time of writing, LINK is trading at $13.64 and is edging closer to support at $13.5. Failure to bounce on the support could open up a free fall down to $10. Technically, the $10 level is currently acting as a key psychological support in determining if LINK keeps trading at double digits. If breached, it may trigger stop losses and intensify the sell-off.
There are still 391.5 million LINK worth $5.4 billion across 24 contracts left to be unlocked. Only time will tell how they might impact the price of LINK.
Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com
