Chainlink (LINK) price soars to near $10, here’s why

• Chainlink (LINK) price has surged more than 23% in the past week.
• On-chain data shows LINK price soared amid whale accumulation.
• Most of the whale accumulation and massive uptake has been on South Korea exchanges Bithumb and Upbit.

Chainlink (LINK) price traded above $9.75 on Sunday, hitting its highest level since May 2022 amid a positive broader crypto market. The price of LINK was up 13% in the past 24 hours and 23% in the past week at the time of writing.

But as LINK price eyes a retest of the $10.00 level, analysts looking at on-chain data say traders are likely to benefit if they watch out for whale activity.

Why has LINK price been soaring?

Chainlink, whose oracle network is seeing staggering adoption, including after its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) went live, has been one of the top performers in the crypto market amid the latest bullish sentiment.

According to on-chain analytics and smart money account Lookonchain, the surge in LINK price coincided with whale accumulation and massive uptake on South Korea exchanges Bithumb and Upbit. During the price surge, data indicates the two leading Korean exchanges accumulated 945K LINK, worth about $9 million.

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We noticed that during the $LINK price increase, Korean exchanges #Bithumb and #Upbit accumulated a total of 945K $LINK ($9M).

The rise in $LINK price has a lot to do with #Bithumb and #Upbit.https://t.co/WSDMxJ1kgbhttps://t.co/S4QxKdnry6 pic.twitter.com/6jOAjRa5iJ

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 22, 2023

Currently, exchanges hold roughly 202.6 million LINK, which represents 20.26% of total supply and is valued at about $1.9 billion. While 37.45 million is currently staked by holders, there are “many giant whales of $LINK,” including one with 81 addresses holding over 11 million tokens and another with 38 addresses holding over 8.35 million LINK tokens.

Chainlink price outlook

As well as the 30-day time frame, Chainlink’s native token is up over the past one-year, with its current price a 52-week high. However, while LINK/USD has enjoyed some upside episodes year-to-date, prices were largely constrained below the $8.60 mark. Chainlink also fell to lows of $4.77 in June this year.

“This whale bought 1.25M $LINK ($9.5M) on-chain at an average price of $7.58 and has made a profit of $2.1M at the current price. Be wary of whales selling $LINK for profit,” Lookonchain posted on X.

While continued whale accumulation portends possible near-term price explosion, its likely the spike to near $10 could come with some sell-off pressure.