Chainlink Drops To $12.50, But Largest Whales Are Accumulating

On-chain data shows the largest of Chainlink whales have been accumulating recently even as the cryptocurrency’s price has slipped below $13.00.

In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has talked about the latest trend in the holdings of the 100 largest addresses present on the Chainlink network.

This category of holders naturally includes the large whales, investors who carry sums significant enough to have some influence on the blockchain. As such, their combined supply can be worth keeping an eye on.

Below is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the supply of the 100 largest Chainlink addresses over the last few months.

As displayed in the graph, the Chainlink supply held by the top 100 addresses went up in November as the cryptocurrency’s price plummeted, a possible sign that big-money investors were loading up.

These whales shed some of their holdings in December and the first week of January, but recently, they have showed signs of renewed accumulation as LINK’s price has plunged below the $13.00 level. Compared to the start of November, the cohort’s holdings are up 16.1 million tokens.

“As retail sells off due to impatience & FUD, it’s common to see smart money gather up more $LINK to prepare for (or cause) the next pump,” explained the analytics firm. It now remains to be seen whether this accumulation will have any effect on the cryptocurrency.

Chainlink isn’t the only asset that has seen movements from large investors recently. As Santiment has highlighted in another X post, Bitcoin sharks and whales have participated in net buying over the last nine days.

In the context of BTC, sharks and whales are defined as investors holding between 10 to 10,000 tokens. Below is a chart that shows how the supply of these investors has changed since late July.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin sharks and whales have increased their combined supply by 36,322 BTC in the last nine days, equivalent to an increase of 0.27%. Interestingly, the large investors have held on despite the fact that the asset’s price has gone through a retrace over the past few days.

However, the same hasn’t been true for the opposite end of the market, the retail entities. These investors, corresponding to addresses holding less than 0.01 BTC, have shed 132 BTC (0.28%) in the same window.

At the time of writing, Chainlink is floating around $12.33, down more than 10% in the last seven days.