The bitcoin price is up 234 percent since January, even despite Wednesday’s drop. But while mainstream media scramble to explain bitcoin’s rise, one cryptocurrency has quietly outperformed every digital asset in the top 25. LINK, the native token of Chainlink, has soared 737 percent year-to-date.
Although LINK’s rise is parabolic, it doesn’t appear to be a crypto pump-and-dump. There are real fundamentals behind the price. In 2019 alone, Chainlink inked deals with Google and Oracle, launched its mainnet on Ethereum, and secured a listing on Coinbase.
What is Chainlink? Up 737% year-to-date
Chainlink has emerged as a key player in the word of smart contracts. While Ethereum popularized the technology, it’s very difficult for smart contracts to interact with other blockchains and real-world systems.
Chainlink fills the gap, making it possible for smart contracts to communicate with existing bank software, data feeds, and APIs. As founder Sergey Nazarov explained to Decrypt:
“Essentially, our goal is make good blockchain middleware. It’s not the sexiest way to put it, but what we’re doing is connecting systems that need to be connected for value to exist.”
Chainlink partnership with Google and Oracle
Google’s cloud team have already tapped Chainlink to improve its blockchain projects. Google’s BigQuery plans to use Chainlink as the middleman between its cloud database and Ethereum. In a Google cloud blog post, they explained:
“Ethereum can interoperate with our enterprise cloud data warehouse (BigQuery) via oracle middleware (Chainlink).”
Chainlink has also partnered with tech-data giant Oracle, which will support more than 50 Chainlink nodes.
Check out our demo on using #BigQuery data and Chainlink services to make internet-hosted data available inside an immutable public blockchain → https://t.co/yVekclgafQ pic.twitter.com/4SovUAjfq0
— Google Cloud Platform (@GCPcloud) June 20, 2019
The partnerships are huge catalysts for LINK, as the cryptocurrency is used to pay node operators. In other words, the more companies use the Chainlink network, the more valuable LINK becomes.
LINK Coinbase Pro listing
LINK jumped nine percent alone in the last 24 hours after Coinbase Pro announced it would support Chainlink trading.
The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange will initially support two link trading pairs: LINK/USD and LINK/ETH. As per usual, Coinbase will roll out support for Chainlink in iterative stages to gauge interest and liquidity. Trading is available in all supported jurisdictions except New York state.