Crypto whales are increasing their exposure to Chainlink (LINK) as a second altcoin-related spot ETF entered the market this week.
Increased activity from institutional investors and large shareholders indicates growing confidence in Chainlink’s prospects. Nevertheless, in line with the overall market weakness, LINK has fallen over 1% in the past 24 hours.
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Bitwise Chainlink ETF debuts with $2.59 million inflows
The Bitwise Chainlink ETF (ticker: CLNK) began trading on the NYSE Arca on January 14th. CLNK operates with a management fee of 0.34%. However, Bitwise will waive this fee for the first three months if your assets are up to $500 million.
“Chainlink provides critical oracle infrastructure that bridges that gap, strengthening the risk management and financial decision-making necessary for mainstream adoption. CLNK gives investors a new way to invest in this foundational layer of the blockchain economy,” said Matt Hogan, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer.
There was a net inflow of $2.59 million on the first day, according to SoSoValue data. The fund’s net assets amounted to $5.18 million, and trading volume reached $3.24 million.
This launch marks the second U.S. spot ETF directly tied to LINK. Grayscale’s Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK), which debuted in early December, attracted $37.05 million in inflows on its first day.
By comparison, Bitwise’s initial inflows seem modest. Still, the ETF’s debut brings LINK ETF’s total net assets to $95.87 million, pushing that number closer to the $100 million mark.
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LINK whale step up accumulation
Beyond the interest of institutional investors, Chainlink has also attracted attention from crypto whales. According to on-chain data, a single whale wallet (0x10D9) withdrew 139,950 LINK (worth approximately $1.96 million) from Binance.
This follows an earlier accumulation phase in which the same wallet withdrew 202,607 LINKs worth approximately $2.7 million from the exchange.
“Currently, the whale holds 3,42,557 $LINK worth $4.81 million, accumulated over the past two days,” Onchain Lens posted.
Additionally, Onchain Lens flagged another whale wallet, 0xb59, which withdrew 207,328 LINK worth approximately $2.78 million on January 12th.
The increased interest in whales did not occur in a vacuum. BeInCrypto reported last week that large holders are accumulating large amounts of LINK. Whale Wallet balances increased by 1.37% over the past week, while exchange-held LINK balances decreased by 1% over the same period, according to Nansen data.
This divergence suggests that large investors are moving tokens away from exchanges and into self-custody, a pattern typically associated with long-term accumulation rather than short-term trading.
Nevertheless, broader market pressures continue to weigh on LINK. The altcoin has fallen 1.2% in the past day, according to data from BeInCrypto Markets. At the time of writing, LINK was trading at $13.8.
