Chainlink (LINK) Just Experienced Over One Hundred Million Dollar Token Unlock – But This Time It’s Different

In a recent development, two uncirculated supply addresses of Chainlink (LINK) unlocked 11.25 million LINK, corresponding to $162 million. Of these, 8.2 million LINK ($128 million) was transferred to Binance.

While token unlocking is generally perceived negatively due to its potential to cause market volatility, Chainlink’s situation may present a different scenario. The company had previously stated that tokens from the non-circulating supply will be used as subsidies, including oracle rewards for nodes.

This move is part of Chainlink’s long-term token issuance program announced in June. The use of said tokens includes treasury diversification for development as well as LINK paid to nodes as oracle rewards.

Chainlink’s Community Director, Rory Piant, previously commented on LINK inflation and said:

“Measured as the inflation rate of circulating supply, this projected 12-month LINK token launch rate is lower than most other Web3 projects in the top 100 by market cap. These calculations are based on changes in circulating supply over the last 12-month period (May 31, 2022 – May 31, 2023) for which data is readily and publicly available.

Web3 projects are defined as the following categories of projects containing fungible tokens: L1 blockchains, L2 networks, DeFi, infrastructure, NFTs, GameFi, DAOs and AI. “With the projected annual LINK token issuance rate being a constant amount of LINK (approximately 7% of the total annual supply), the actual annual inflation of LINK will decrease each calendar year.”

*This is not investment advice.