Chainlink price stuck in a bearish channel — can $263M in whale buying trigger a breakout?

Chainlink price is capped inside a narrowing bearish structure despite signs of accumulation from large holders.

As of this writing, LINK was trading at about $12.78, showing a slight daily gain of 0.7%. The token has dropped 9.2% over the past month and 10% over the last week as sellers continue to protect overhead resistance.

Daily Chainlink (LINK) trading volume fell to $541 million, down 21% from the previous day, pointing to softer participation during the consolidation phase. Derivatives volume points to the same hesitation.

CoinGlass data shows derivatives volume slipping 19% to $1.02 billion, while open interest rose 2.7% to $544 million. This suggests traders are holding positions rather than aggressively adding new leverage, a sign of caution as price compresses.

Whale activity and fund flows offer support

While price action has struggled, on-chain data tells a different story. According to a Dec. 16 X post from Santiment, the top 100 Chainlink wallets have added 20.46 million LINK since early November, worth about $263 million at current prices.

At the same time, LINK balances on exchanges have fallen to their lowest level this year, pointing to continued withdrawals into self-custody.

Institutional flows have also stayed positive. Grayscale’s LINK exchange-traded fund, launched on Dec. 2, has recorded only inflows so far, reaching $56 million in cumulative net inflows.

On Dec. 16, the fund added another $1.38 million, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs posted large daily outflows exceeding $500 million.

Recent network developments have added to that longer-term confidence. In mid-December, Coinbase selected Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol as the exclusive bridge for expanding wrapped assets like cbBTC and cbETH across multiple chains.

Around the same time, tokenized asset issuer Backed rolled out its CCIP-powered xBridge, allowing regulated tokenized equities to move across networks.

Chainlink price technical analysis

On the daily chart, LINK continues to trade inside a tightening bearish structure. Price keeps making slightly lower peaks while repeatedly holding the same support around $12.60–$12.70. This tightening range usually means a strong move may be coming.

For now, every bounce has run into resistance, with all the key moving averages sitting above the price.

Chainlink daily chart. Credit: crypto.news

Other momentum signals show little follow-through, and the relative strength index is close to 50, keeping LINK at neutral levels. During this consolidation, volume has continued to decrease, suggesting minimal participation from both buyers and sellers.

Momentum may move toward the $14.50 region if buyers are able to raise the price above $13.50 and maintain it there. That would likely require stronger participation and follow-through.

On the downside, a break below $12.60 would tilt the structure lower again, opening the door to a move toward the high-$11 range.