As Chainlink Grows From Smart Contracts, LINK Will Push Higher

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Chainlink (CCC:LINK-USD) has been one hot crypto. Year-to-date (YTD), LINK-USD is up 208%, from $11.27 at the end of December to around $37 on May 17. This is even after the LINK token has come significantly off of its high close of $52.20 on May 9.

a digital representation of the chainlink (LINK) cryptocurrency
Source: Stanslavs / Shutterstock.com

Additionally, over the past year, LINK has risen over 8.5 times, up 873% from $3.78 on May 17, 2020. This shows that the cryptocurrency has been in significant demand. So, after the present market dip closes out, expect to see Chainlink rebound.

There are a number of reasons for this, mainly related to this name’s unique features. As such, this article will discuss why I think Chainlink has a good chance of becoming a substantial cryptocurrency in the near-term future.

LINK and Chainlink’s Standout Features

Founded in 2017, Chainlink is an “oracle network” that focuses on smart contracts and connects blockchains with data from the real world. It bills itself as a “Defi” (decentralized finance) application. These are apps in cryptocurrency and blockchain which aim to disrupt traditional finance.

One of Chainlink’s first breaks came when Google (owned by Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)) began using it in 2019 for smart contracts. This gave it a big boost. The development got picked up in the media and Forbes described Chainlink as “a company that provides on ramps and off ramps for information necessary to run self-executing code called smart contracts.”

As a result of this attention, LINK founder Sergey Nazarov has become known as the father of the smart contracts concept. What’s more, Nazarov believes the DeFi market is already at $80 billion and poised for huge growth from here.

Lastly, though, Filecoin (CCC:FIL-USD) and Chainlink recently started working together to allow smart contracts to work easier with Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD). Filecoin specializes in crypto and blockchain data storage. Developers will now have a “full Web 3.0” infrastructure as a result of this collaboration.

Chainlink Plays on a $500 Billion Industry

With these developments and features in mind, look for Chainlink to take off this year once the present crypto market correction finishes its course. DeFi products will become increasingly popular in 2021.

After all, crypto investors look to make money and monetary interest from their crypto investments. This will require the use of Chainlink to create the smart contracts inherent to much of the DeFi interest and staking products.

More specifically, Decrypt.com recently highlighted Chainlink’s whitepaper, which detailed how the crypto will become increasingly used in several growth arenas. These areas include NFTs (non-fungible tokens), stablecoins and DeFi.

Nazarov believes that DeFi contracts already have “$500 billion in total value locked this year.” Most likely, this is mainly from staking and interest-related contracts available at many crypto brokerages and wallets. But the problem is there is no real way to verify this statement on the present size of the industry.

However, at the end of last year, Nazarov also told Decrypt.com that there were already 300 applications using Chainlink. Some of these included gaming, insurance, wallets and even the regulated finance operator Nexo. So, clearly there is a growing popularity here.

What to Do with Chainlink and LINK Tokens

All told, despite the recent selloff in cryptocurrencies, you should expect to see a rebound here before the end of the summer. Chainlink and LINK tokens are bound for big things. This is because of an increasingly popular use in smart contracts and related blockchain applications.

Today, LINK is off 28% or so from its high close of $52.20 in early May. So, if my bullish thesis is correct, now would be a good time to buy in, either as an average-cost purchase for existing investors or as a new long-term investment. Either way, expect to make some money with Chainlink crypto this year.

On the date of publication, Mark R. Hake held a long position in Ethereum (ETH). The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Mark Hake writes about personal finance on mrhake.medium.com and runs the Total Yield Value Guide which you can review here.

Mark Hake writes about personal finance on mrhake.medium.com, Newsbreak.com and Beehiiv.com.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2021/05/chainlink-grows-smart-contracts-link-will-push-higher/.

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