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Chainlink Hits Record High, Altcoins Rally Amid Bitcoin Consolidation
Chainlink's oracles act as a bridge between cryptocurrency smart contracts and off-chain data feeds.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:57 a.m. Published Jan 18, 2021, 1:23 p.m.
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Decentralized oracle network Chainlink's LINK token and other prominent alternative cryptocurrencies (dubbed altcoins) are charting solid gains as the crypto market leader bitcoin takes a bull breather.
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LINK set a new record price of $23.68 overnight and is changing hands near $21.73 at press time, a 7.3% gain on a 24-hour basis. The previous lifetime high of $19.90 was reached in August, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The cryptocurrency has nearly doubled in the first two weeks of the year in a strong follow-through to last year's 530% rise. Chainlink's oracles act as a bridge between cryptocurrency smart contracts and off-chain data feeds.
Some altcoins such as OMG and OXT are up over 10% in the past 24 hours, while others including ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash have gained at least 2%–8% each.
Bitcoin is currently trading near $36,900, representing a 5% gain in 24 hours, but remains trapped in a week-long tightening range of $30,000 to $40,000. The period of consolidation looks to be paving the way for the rotation of money into the relatively cheap altcoins.
The switch to alts began last week with Polkadot blockchain's DOT token rallying sharply to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to Alex Melikhov, CEO and founder of cryptocurrency framework Equilibrium and the EOSDT stablecoin. "Other coins now seem to be following Polkadot higher," he said.
The record ether-bitcoin implied volatility spread seen earlier this month had suggested a rally in ether and alternative cryptocurrencies in general may be on the way.
Altcoins could continue to "pop hard" while bitcoin is held in a narrowing price range, said market analyst Lark Davis on Twitter.
Also read: Bitcoin Struggles to Recover After Biggest Weekly Price Loss Since September
LINK may receive an additional boost from Ethereum's impending switch to the staking model, which would allow node operators to stake their collateral in order to gain access to certain data jobs that require collateral.
The altcoin rally may pause if bitcoin's recent narrowing price range ends with a bullish breakout, opening doors for stronger gains. "If bitcoin breaks $42,000, it's going to run to test $50,000 pretty quickly," Vinny Lingham, investor and founder of crypto wallet and identity verification firm Civic, tweeted Thursday.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Here's what bitcoin bulls are saying as price remains stuck during global rally
It's about a lot more than "zooming out." Supply overhangs and investor "muscle memory" regarding gold help explain bitcoin's poor absolute and relative performance.
What to know:
- Bitcoin has failed so far to act as an inflation hedge or safe-haven asset, lagging badly behind gold, which has surged amid high inflation, wars, and interest rate uncertainty.
- Crypto advocates argue that bitcoin’s weakness reflects a temporary supply overhang, investor “muscle memory” favoring familiar precious metals and its correlation with risk assets, rather than a collapse in long-term demand.
- Many bitcoin proponents still see BTC as a superior long-term store of value and “digital gold,” predicting that, once traditional hard assets are overbought, capital will rotate into bitcoin, allowing it to “catch up” to gold.
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