Chainlink has finally received the Wall Street makeover it has been hinting at for years. Once Grayscale rolled out the exchange-traded fund tied to LINK, the token rallied. At last check on Tuesday, it was up 12.7% to $13.40 – a welcome bounce for an asset that’s been slogging through a rough year.
Key Takeaways
- •LINK jumped 8% after Grayscale launched the first U.S. ETF dedicated to the Chainlink token.
- •The GLNK ETF offers regulated exposure to LINK but is not a traditional 1940 Act ETF.
- •The debut comes as LINK remains down nearly 40% on the year.
LINK Technicals
Trading under the ticker GLNK, the new Grayscale fund provides investors with an easy, brokerage-friendly way to gain exposure to Chainlink without the complexity of explaining private keys to their financial advisor.
This is the first U.S. ETF dedicated to tracking LINK, the engine behind Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network. This technology feeds smart contracts with essential data, ranging from weather alerts and price feeds to the outcomes of events.
Chainlink's Superpower
Since its founding in 2014 by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Elli, Chainlink has become indispensable across various sectors including DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and numerous onchain markets. According to Grayscale, it helps secure tens of billions of dollars in value.
There is one caveat for potential investors: GLNK is not a traditional Investment Company Act ETF. It simply holds LINK on behalf of shareholders and does not come with the full consumer protections of more regulated funds.
Nevertheless, the NYSE Arca listing represents a significant advancement from its past as a 2021 private placement and subsequently an OTC Markets product. For both institutional and retail traders, accessing LINK has become considerably easier. This development may offer the confidence boost the asset needs, especially given its 39% decline this year.