Chainlink marines party like it’s 2019

Happy Groundhog Day LINK hodlers

It’s Feb. 2 — that’s right, woodchuck chuckers — Groundhog Day!

Just like Bill Murray's character in the 1993 fantasy comedy experiencing the same day repeatedly, crypto investors often find themselves waking up to the same pattern of wild price swings and market unpredictability.

No matter how many times they go to sleep, they wake up to a market that's either thrillingly up or dismally down, leading them into a seemingly endless cycle of highs and lows much like the unending loop of Groundhog Day.

One of the strongest cryptocurrencies today and one that has thrown its adherents for more than a few loops is Chainlink (LINK), up 8% today and 35% over the past week.

In June 2023, LINK touched down to its 2019 high almost to the penny, while in a multiyear range between $5 and $9. (Of course, on a marketcap basis it’s about 8 times higher, as token inflation has increased the circulating supply.)

Yesterday the #1 oracle token broke out of a multi-month range and registered its highest daily close since April 4, 2022, with strong continuation today into the high $18’s.

It was a leader at the start of the 2020-21 bull market, first breaking out to new all-time highs in July 2020.

Trying to predict if the crypto “groundhog” will see its shadow and confirm the bull market, or retreat for a bearish pre-halving season, is a fool’s errand.

Either way, don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s cold out there.

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IBC bridge volume in January:

Source: Adi

Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol, which originated in Cosmos but is in the process of spreading far and wide, posted impressive numbers last month.

Equally impressive, the total value lost on IBC chains: $0.

That compares favorably to all other bridge solutions — those connecting EVM and other chains have collectively cost users billions, with a capital B, in losses.

Native IBC infrastructure is coming soon too, not just to the Cosmos “interchain” but to virtually all relevant chains, including Ethereum rollups and Solana Avalanche subnets.

Speculate positioning has decreased across the board and ETH investors must now look towards the Dencun upgrade, a potential spot ETH ETF, and restaking as tailwinds.

The big news of the month was the approval of various spot BTC ETFs. However, various ETF market dynamics have resulted in muted price action with slight downside. The next major catalysts for BTC are the halving in April, as well as potential distributions to Mt. Gox creditors.

Binance froze $4.2 million worth of XRP stolen from Chris Larsen earlier this week

Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Reps. Mike Flood and Wiley Nickel on Thursday introduced a joint resolution to overturn the SEC’s latest accounting standards

The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm’s Financial Disclosures.