LINK
Chainlink · Oracle infra
Score qualifies for T2; held by Value engine 2 (needs 3), Security 1 (needs 2), Distribution 0 (needs 1).
Key facts
- Circulating 766.9M, 77%
- Locked or unvested 233.2M, 23%
- Max 1.00B
Market data: CoinGecko, Oct 24, 2026. Scores reviewed Oct 23, 2026.
Assessment
Chainlink's engine is monetary and thin: about $109M of LINK is supplied at third-party lenders, though Aave now sets a 0 LTV for new loans, and the Chainlink Reserve has taken in 6.20M LINK in ~14 months, holding rather than distributing it. Supply is fixed at 1B in an immutable contract with no mint function. The record is long: 9.1 years, two drawdowns of 85% or more, and no $50M+ exploit. Control is the weakness: Chainlink Labs received 30% and directs a 35% node and ecosystem reserve, ~233M LINK is still non-circulating, and Labs multisigs operate the feeds, CCIP and the Reserve.
How value reaches holders
Payment Abstraction + Chainlink Reserve live: Reserve 6.20M LINK (~0.62% of supply, on-chain Oct 14, 2026) after ~14 months, growing ~$4-6M/month; SVR live on Ethereum + Base + Arbitrum + Aave V4 (~$7.5M/yr Chainlink-side), but fees still route to node-operator cost coverage until staking-secured SVR ships; enterprise revenue mostly off-token (Labs)
Score anatomy
Demand
27 / 45: the stronger of two routes, plus adoptionWhy would anyone hold it: does value reach the token, and is the network or product used today?
Small or discretionary flows, plumbing under 25%, or buy-and-hold into a treasury
$25-100M/yr
~$109M of LINK supplied at third-party lenders (Aave v3 $98M, now 0 LTV for new loans; Compound $8M), DefiLlama Oct 23, 2026; node payments add a fee role.
Measurable niche monetary use: payment rails, savings products, or collateral at third-party venues below the next levelmedium confidenceHow this is scored
Chainlink is the default oracle: Chainlink staking fees $62.5M TTM, CCIP holds $2.0B, and peers like RedStone secure ~6.5% share; share held while total value secured fell with prices
Reference: the category's default by a wide margin, the venue, network or asset others are measured againstmedium confidenceHow this is scored
Two routes, the stronger counts
Soundness
20 / 40Can a long-term holder trust the rules: supply, float, distribution and control?
Fixed 1B: the LinkToken contract has no mint function and is not upgradeable, so supply cannot grow.
Hard cap or net deflationary by protocol rule, under 1%/yr gross growth, and nobody can mint past the cap or change the schedule short of a hard fork node operators adopthigh confidenceHow this is scored
Float 77% (766.9M of 1B); the other ~233M sits with Chainlink and node-operator reserves released without a published schedule.
0.5-1.5% per month, or large foundation or treasury holdings without a schedulehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Chainlink Labs 30% plus a 35% node and ecosystem reserve it directs (65%); the 35% 2017 sale ($32M) included a discounted presale; ~233M LINK (23%) still non-circulating with Labs
Insiders received over 50%, or one organization directs over 30% todayhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Chainlink Labs multisigs operate the feeds, CCIP and the Reserve, and staking pools sit behind a StakingTimelock with a 2-day minimum delay (read Oct 23, 2026); the LINK token itself is immutable
A halt, rollback or exploited consensus bug in the last 24 months, attack cost under $10M, or a foundation-selected validator set or small multisig can halt or upgrade with no meaningful exit windowmedium confidenceHow this is scored
Durability
11 / 15Is it big, proven and reachable by institutions?
$9.2B market cap (band 4), $297.4M/day median volume (band 4), no flags.
Major: $1-10B market cap and $50M/day+How this is scored
9.1 years since the Sep 2017 sale; fell ~85% (Jan to Sep 2018) and 91% ($53 May 2021 to $4.76 Jun 2023); no rollback or $50M+ exploit.
8-10 years and two such cyclesmedium confidenceHow this is scored
US spot LINK ETFs (Grayscale, Bitwise) hold $211.8M (SoSoValue, Oct 22, 2026), under $500M; Valour Chainlink ETP in Europe.
One US spot ETF, or US ETFs under $500Mhigh confidenceHow this is scored
What would move it up
To reach T2 Strong, 3 gates are still open:
- Value engine 2needs 3(open)
- Security 1needs 2(open)
- Distribution 0needs 1(open)
- Score 58gate 55(met)
- Adoption 5gate 3(met)
- Supply 5gate 2(met)
- Float and unlocks 3gate 1(met)
- Scale 4gate 3(met)
Tier outlook
Could move down ↓low likelihood
- Usage falls to 1 if LINK collateral at third-party lenders winds down after Aave set a 0 LTV for new loans (~$109M supplied on Oct 23, 2026)
- Holder routing rises if staking-secured SVR ships and routes fees to stakers, not live as of Oct 2026
- Holder routing stays at 2 while Reserve intake of ~$4-6M a month is held rather than distributed
- Distribution stays at 0 while Chainlink Labs directs the ~233M non-circulating LINK
- Access rises to 4 once US spot LINK ETFs pass $500M ($211.8M on Oct 22, 2026)
Compare with
How the ranking works and how LINK compares: see the full ranking. This entry as JSON:
GET https://tokens.10102.io/api/v1/tokenomics?symbol=LINK