Chainlink Price Today

The current real-time Chainlink price is $13.93 . LINK price has grew by 0.32% in the last day and increased by 5.82% in the last seven days. It’s important to note that the current Chainlink market capitalization is $8,468,975,594. The maximum supply is , with a circulating supply of 608,099,970.45. LINK is ranked #15 in terms of market cap.

Chainlink In A Nutshell

Chainlink (LINK) is an oracle network built on Ethereum. It allows smart contracts and Decentralized Applications (dApps) to interact with off-chain data sources and payment methods. Many other cryptocurrency projects, including Aave and Compound, use Chainlink’s services. 

Chainink was co-founded by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis, who wrote the original Chainlink whitepaper alongside Cornell University professor Dr. Ari Juels.

How Chainlink Works – The Basics Explored

Chainlink was built on the Ethereum network, and LINK is an ERC-20 token. As such, the project benefits from Ethereum’s security and decentralization. However, ERC-20 token transactions (65,000 gwei) cost around 300% more than sending ETH (21,000 gwei), resulting in relatively high fees. 

Being built on the Ethereum network, Chainlink utilizes the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, which enables LINK holders to earn rewards for staking their tokens and securing the network. Chianlink’s staking pool is currently at capacity, with 40,875,000 LINK tokens pledged.  

Chainlink is an oracle network, meaning a decentralized ecosystem of data sources. Users can earn income by creating and operating a node on the network and connecting it to external data sources or APIs. Chainlink’s technology enables crypto projects and decentralized applications to access real-world data streams, vastly increasing what’s possible within the crypto space. 

The Chainlink network comprises node operators that provide access to various data points, including price feeds and weather information. A contract requesting data must use LINK to pay the node operator for providing the data, which in turn incentivizes the node operator to continue providing reliable data. 

What Is Unique About Chainlink 

Chainlink was one of the first cryptocurrency oracle networks to hit the market, giving it a first-mover advantage and enabling it to develop a rich ecosystem. This has allowed the project to foster a large number of partnerships with major players, including payments services company Swift, crypto exchange KuCoin, and the Zengo crypto wallet. 

Maintaining data integrity is critical for any oracle network. To achieve this, Chainlink will pull the same data from multiple node operators, compare the results, and disregard any erroneous data. By taking this approach, Chainlink can ensure that requesting smart contracts always receive correct, actionable data. 

Chainlink Price History – Launch Till Today

Chainlink was released as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017, with 350 million LINK tokens selling for $0.11 each. Compared to today’s prices, ICO investors would be in profit by around 11,563%. Upon becoming available on the market, LINK quickly rose to $0.1891 as investors began to discover the project.

Going into 2018, Bitcoin was surging, and more participants were entering the crypto market, leading LINK to hit a high of $1.2383. However, the asset quickly lost its momentum and ended up trading between roughly $0.30 and $0.50 until April 2019, when it hit $1.337, before climbing toward $3.70 in June. 

As LINK got on the radar of more investors and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) became a significant investing narrative, it experienced a massive uptrend, rising to $18.80 by August 2020. However, this was just the beginning of LINK’s run, as the asset climbed to an all-time high of $49.16 by May 2021 as the bull run took over. As the market cooled off and investors began to sell LINK, it ranged between roughly $20 and $30 until early 2022. 

Throughout the latter half of 2022 and the majority of 2023, LINK struggled, trading for around $6.75. However, early 2024 saw LINK rise to a recent high of $20.91, reigniting investor demand. LINK has been volatile over the past few months and trades at $13.93 today. 

Chainlink Circulating Supply

There is a total supply of 1 billion LINK tokens, of which 608,099,970.45 are currently circulating. The Chainlink team allocated 35% of the supply to incentivizing node operators to validate transactions. Moreover, 30% has been reserved by Chainlink Labs and will be used to fund the network’s continued development.