Grayscale's launch of the first US spot Chainlink exchange-traded fund (ETF) drew strong interest on its first day of trading, suggesting investors still have an appetite for regulated altcoin products despite a broader crypto market slump.
Grayscale's Chainlink (LINK) ETF debuted with $41 million in cumulative net inflows and $13 million worth of “solid” trading volume during the first day, said Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, in a Wednesday X post. “$41m in first day flows. Another insta-hit from the crypto world, only dud so far was Doge, but it’s still early.”
The debut adds to signs that institutional and professional investors are waiting on the sidelines for more regulated ways to gain exposure to altcoins that can be integrated into corporate or fund strategies.
In comparison, the Solana (SOL) ETF debuted with just $8.2 million in first-day volume, according to Farside Investors data.
The spot XRP (XRP) ETF continues to lead altcoin ETF debuts this year, with $243 million in first-day inflows, according to SosoValue.
Link ETF Debut Was Successful But Not a “Blockbuster,” Says ETF Analyst
While the Chainlink ETF's debut was not a “blockbuster success,” the fund is already holding $64 million worth of total assets, with the initial $18 million seed allocation, wrote ETF analyst James Seyffart, in a Wednesday X post. “Chainlink showing that longer tail assets can find success in the ETF wrapper too.”
In finance, long-tail assets refer to less popular and less liquid assets, associated with higher risk and reward profiles.
While the LINK token’s price rose 9.8% over the past week, the ETF's debut was unable to reverse the token’s over 39% decline over the past year, Cointelegraph data shows.
Understanding Chainlink and its Role in DeFi
LINK is the native utility token of the Chainlink network, used to reward validator node operators and pay for the protocol’s oracle data feed services.
Chainlink provides decentralized applications and asset tokenization protocols with reliable real-world data feeds for secure and accurate smart contract execution.
Chainlink’s decentralized oracle and crosschain interoperability services are foundational for developers building more complex decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.