This past month, I've been accumulating The Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK), a spot price exchange-traded fund that tracks crypto oracle Chainlink (LINK-USD). In the high-risk, high-reward facet of investing, there's no more prominent and prevalent tranche currently than cryptocurrency. In the past four months, Bitcoin (BIT-USD), the poster child of digital assets, has been cut in half, taking most members of the asset class down in sympathy. There's a strong correlation in the crypto technology subsector, and as a result, so goes Bitcoin, so go its well renown bretheren such as Ethereum (ETH-USD), Solana (SOL-USD), and Chainlink.
I don't believe this will be a permanent situation because, as the crypto industry matures and becomes more mainstream, each individual crypto will be judged on earnings, revenues, and financial expectations. The way things stand now, it's in the realm of daytraders relying on article headlines, technical analysis, and social media posts. In other words, to use an old Wall Street expression, they are throwing away the baby with the bathwater. With the prospect of Bitcoin falling further, you are probably asking yourself, why crypto? Why Chainlink? Why The Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF? I will get to all three questions in chronological order.
Crypto is a well-known asset class to investors. Prone to boom/bust cycles, it's still in its tween stage. I'm a believer that blockchain, the underlying technology of crypto, will be the backbone of the Internet as more industries digitize [tokenize] their assets, particularly in finance. BlackRock (BLK), JP Morgan (JPM), and Fidelity are all leading the way. Others are following quickly. It's only going to be another few years before everything in finance is on the blockchain and tokenized. Bitcoin will surely be a beneficiary in all this, but I don't know how to evaluate Bitcoin. Plus, with the advent of stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and Circle (CRCL), I'm not convinced that Bitcoin will be the go-to form of monetary exchange in the United States, as the Bitcoin enthusiasts claim. It will do well in third-world countries with unstable currencies and high inflation, but not in the U.S. of A. I stay away from it.
Chainlink is a crypto oracle, which means it connects blockchains to outside data sources. It's a platform. Just as Windows (MSFT) is for the personal computer, AWS (AMZN) is for cloud computing, and NVIDIA (NVDA) is for Artificial Intelligence, Chainlink does the same for Online Finance. It has a lot of potential, but the operative word is potential. It's not there yet, but it has a great head start.
According to the Chainlink website, as of December 2025, over $27 trillion in transactions have been done utilizing the company's service since 2022. In the overall scheme of things, this is a pittance when compared to the totality of the worldwide financial market. There's room to grow. It has revenues, too. DefiLlama states that the company has $53 million in sales with a market cap just under $6 billion and is selling at $8/token. If it seems expensive based on traditional fundamental investing metrics, it is. But you're paying for the future. It's the dominant oracle in decentralized finance, commanding close to 70% market share. It also has 84% market share on Ethereum, the leading blockchain in defi.
The company has excellent partnerships. The Mastercard (MA) crypto initiative runs on Chainlink. JP Morgan's Kinexys utilizes Chainlink technology. UBS (UBS) and ICE [Inter Continental Exchange] are also in the portfolio. These are just a few of the many partnerships Chainlink administers, and although impressive, the one I believe is the most important is the relationship with SWIFT. SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications] is a secure messaging network that initiates international payments such as wire transfers. Chainlink is becoming the de facto industry standard for all financial transactions. Although the token price is very volatile and under extreme pressure, I believe this is a good time to accumulate it if you're a patient investor. NVIDIA did nothing from 2002-2012 until it started to run. I'm betting that Chainlink will have a similar story. I'm not suggesting that Chainlink will have the prolific gains of NVIDIA, but it could be a ten-bagger in the not-so-distant future.
One billion Chainlink tokens have been created, with 700 million in circulation. A caveat here is that if more tokens are released on the open market, it may cause the price of Chainlink to drop. Plus, there's always the threat of a sell-off in Bitcoin lurking. The catalyst needed to get all cryptocurrencies back in gear is the passage of the Clarity Act. The Clarity Act is U.S. legislation that aims to introduce regulation to the crypto industry and would usher in institutional interaction with blockchains. It would also strengthen consumer protection. The Clarity Act passed in the House but needs to pass in the Senate. Originally scheduled to go to vote in January of 2026, it has been delayed because some crypto industry participants did not like the parameters of the Act. These industry participants are primarily crypto purists, most notably Briam Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase (COIN). With additional negotiations, the Clarity Act will most likely be passed for the benefit of both sides.
As mentioned previously, while the price of Chainlink is down, I'm accumulating shares of GLNK. Previously, I had a Coinbase account, but I was uncomfortable with having to use an authenticator to access my assets, was tired of all the phishing scams, and was petrified of being hacked. With the introduction of spot-price ETFs that I can purchase through my broker, I jumped back into the fray because I'm a big believer in Chainlink. Although there are spot-price ETFs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, I'm choosing a utility token in Chainlink to invest in. A note of caution on GLNK. It is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and is not subject to the same regulations and protections as 40 Act registered ETFs and mutual funds. This may change with the passing of the Clarity Act.
Full disclosure, I primarily invest in S&P 500 Index Funds with minimal expense ratios, but place a small percentage of my portfolio into equities or ETFs that I believe have a future. Chainlink is my current wager. Both LINK and GLNK are trading under $10 currently, and are going lower. It's always a dangerous sign when an investment goes below the $10 mark. So buyer beware and always use limit orders. Palantir (PLTR) advanced from $7/share to $220/share in two years. That's a nice gain. Reddit's (RDDT) Wall Street Bets, YouTube (GOOGL), and TikTok influencers, and plain old algos gone wild can propel an inexpensive investment higher in short time frames. I think that's where Chainlink is going in the next few years, and I'm willing to take my chances.
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