Chainlink Price (LINK)

What is Chainlink (LINK)?

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network: a system of independent node operators that bring outside information, such as asset prices, into blockchain smart contracts. Blockchains cannot fetch data from the internet on their own, so a lending app that needs to know the price of ETH, or an insurance contract that needs to know whether a flight was delayed, relies on an oracle to deliver that information. Chainlink also lets smart contracts send messages and tokens between different blockchains.

LINK is the token of the Chainlink network. Node operators are paid in LINK for their work, and holders can stake LINK to help secure some of Chainlink's services. Chainlink was co-founded by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis, published its whitepaper in 2017 and went live on Ethereum in May 2019. By the value of the assets it helps secure, it is the most widely used oracle network in DeFi.

Chainlink at a glance

The oracle problem

Smart contracts run inside a blockchain and can only see data that is already on that chain. That keeps them predictable, because every node must reach the same result, but it means they have no direct way to learn about the outside world: market prices, interest rates, sports results or bank balances.

An oracle bridges that gap. The risk is that a single oracle becomes a single point of failure: if one company or server supplies the data, it can make a mistake, be hacked or be bribed, and every contract that depends on it can be drained. Many DeFi exploits have come from manipulated price data. Chainlink's answer is to use many independent nodes and many data sources, so no single party controls the result.

How Chainlink works

Each Chainlink service runs on a decentralized oracle network (DON), a group of independent node operators that each fetch data, compare their answers and agree on one result before it is written to the blockchain.

For a price feed, the process looks like this:

Collect: each node pulls the asset's price from several professional data providers that aggregate prices across exchanges.

Agree: the nodes share their answers off-chain and combine them into a single value, usually the median, signed by the group.

Deliver: the agreed value is written to an on-chain contract that any app can read. Feeds update on a schedule and whenever the price moves by more than a set amount.

Because a feed uses many independent nodes and many sources, one faulty node or data provider cannot move the result on its own. Node operators include professional infrastructure firms, and their performance history is public on-chain.

Chainlink's main services

Data Feeds: the price feeds that most lending, derivatives and stablecoin protocols use to value collateral and trigger liquidations. Data Streams offer faster, on-demand prices for trading apps.

CCIP: the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol lets smart contracts send messages and tokens between blockchains. It runs on Chainlink's node networks plus a separate risk-management network that watches for suspicious activity and can pause transfers. CCIP opened to all developers in April 2024. Read more about cross-chain interoperability.

Proof of Reserve: checks that tokens backed by off-chain assets, such as wrapped bitcoin or tokenized gold, are really backed, and publishes the result on-chain.

VRF: a verifiable random number generator used by blockchain games, NFT mints and lotteries, with a proof that the number was not tampered with.

Automation and Functions: services that trigger smart contracts on a schedule or condition, and that let contracts call outside web APIs.

Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE): launched in November 2025, CRE lets developers and institutions build workflows that combine several Chainlink services across multiple chains and existing bank systems.

What is LINK used for?

Paying node operators: apps and institutions pay for Chainlink services, and node operators are rewarded in LINK.

Staking: LINK holders can stake their tokens in the Chainlink Staking pool, which helps secure Chainlink's ETH/USD price feed on Ethereum. Node operators who stake can be penalized if the feed fails, and stakers earn rewards. The pool has a size limit and an unbonding period, so space is not always available.

The Chainlink Reserve: since August 2025, part of the revenue Chainlink earns from enterprises and on-chain users is converted into LINK and held in the Chainlink Reserve, a long-term on-chain treasury. Through Payment Abstraction, users can pay for services in other tokens, which are then converted into LINK.

LINK supply and distribution

LINK has a fixed total supply of 1 billion tokens, all created at launch in 2017. No new LINK can be minted. The original allocation was:

Tokens from the node operator and company allocations are released over time, so the circulating supply has grown steadily since 2019. The live figure is shown in the market data on this page.

LINK on Ethereum uses the ERC-677 standard, an extension of ERC-20 that adds a way to send tokens and data in one transaction. LINK also exists on many other blockchains and layer 2 networks, where it is moved through CCIP.

Chainlink and traditional finance

Chainlink has become one of the main bridges between banks and public blockchains. In 2023 it ran experiments with Swift and a group of large banks on moving tokenized assets between chains, and it has run pilots with the DTCC and several major asset managers on putting fund data and tokenized funds on-chain. In August 2025 the US Department of Commerce chose Chainlink, along with another oracle provider, to publish official economic data such as GDP on public blockchains.

Chainlink ETFs

The Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK) began trading on NYSE Arca on 2 December 2025 as the first US spot Chainlink ETF, and Bitwise launched a second spot Chainlink ETF in January 2026. An ETF gives price exposure through an ordinary brokerage account, but investors do not hold the LINK themselves.

Key milestones

Risks and controversies

Token supply held by the team: a large share of LINK is still held in wallets linked to the Chainlink team and the node operator allocation. Those wallets periodically move tokens to exchanges and node operators, which some holders see as steady selling pressure.

Concentration of control: each price feed is run by a set of selected node operators rather than an open, permissionless group, and many Chainlink contracts can be upgraded by multisig wallets controlled by a small number of signers. Critics argue this leaves more trust in the Chainlink team than the word "decentralized" suggests.

Value capture: much of Chainlink's usage has historically been subsidized, and whether service fees will grow enough to support LINK's value is still an open question. The Reserve is designed to address this, but it depends on real revenue.

Competition: other oracle networks compete for the same customers, especially for fast price data on newer blockchains.

Price volatility: like any cryptocurrency, LINK's price can move sharply. This page is not financial advice.

How to buy and store LINK

LINK is listed on most large exchanges and can be bought through on-ramp providers or swapped on decentralized exchanges. LINK on Ethereum is an ERC-20 compatible token, so it can be held in any self-custody wallet that supports Ethereum tokens, including the Bitcoin.com Wallet app. LINK also exists on other networks, so always check which network your LINK is on before you send it, and be wary of bridges and tokens that are not the official version.

Bitcoin.com interview with Sergey Nazarov

Bitcoin.com spoke with Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov about connecting crypto markets with traditional finance. He discusses cross-chain DeFi, the role of oracles in securing on-chain applications, and why institutions such as JPMorgan, Fidelity and UBS are moving parts of their business on-chain.