Chainlink Whales Accumulate 20.46M Tokens as LINK Consolidates at $12.69, Is Market Rally Coming?

Chainlink (LINK), a cryptocurrency that enables smart contracts to access real-world data across various blockchains, is attracting market attention. Today, crypto analyst Santiment flagged an important whale activity in the Chainlink market as big investors are quietly accumulating LINK, an indicator revealing strong conviction on the token’s potential.

Based on his market examination, the analyst specifically identified that Chainlink’s top 100 largest wallets have been buying tokens since the beginning of November, cumulatively topping 20.46 million LINK tokens (worth $263 million) into their wallets.

In another interesting observation, amid these persistent and deliberate accumulations by large token holders, Chainlink prices continued to remain down. Today, December 16, 2025, LINK’s price further slumped by 6.5%, making its value hover at $12.80 currently. Furthermore, the legacy altcoin has been down 7.5% and 10.7% over the past week and month, respectively, a reflection of heightened volatility on the wider crypto market fueled by macroeconomic pressures. Especially the Fed’s 25 bps rate cut last week, on December 10, failed to lift the crypto market; instead, most crypto assets plunged into downturns.

Why Whales Are Accumulating LINK

This contradictory situation between weak price actions and increased whale conviction often marks the early stage of accumulation, where deliberate funds silently come before a structural shift in a crypto market like Chainlink. Rather than seeing the current LINK price decline as a weakness, long-term investors view it as an opportunity to amass tokens at a discount, positioning themselves for potential price growth.

Today, on-chain metrics reported by Santiment revealed a consistent accumulation of LINK tokens by the top 100 largest Chainlink wallets. The data disclosed that addresses holding more than 1,000,000 LINK and more tokens have been expanding their holdings significantly for several weeks now.

One of the catalysts that triggered ongoing whale acquisition is the recent debut of the Chainlink ETF. Early this month, on December 2, 2025, Chainlink returned to the spotlight after the launch of the Grayscale Chainlink ETF, which started trading on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) the same day.

On Dec.2, Grayscale, a digital currency asset management firm, rolled out the US spot Chainlink ETF following the conversion of its existing Chainlink Trust into an exchange-traded fund, which also provides investors with staking rewards besides other investment benefits. The debut marked a substantial advancement in the crypto ETF sector as it brought a new gateway for investors to gain exposure to Chainlink.

What’s Next for Chainlink as Its Consolidation Continues?  

Despite rising institutional exposure via the Chainlink ETF, surging whale accumulation, and increasing RWA activity, LINK has remained at a major crossroad, depicted by its persistent corrections. LINK, which currently trades at $12.80, has been down 10.7% in the last 30 days.

Over the past month, since November 15, Chainlink’s price has been trading in a tight range between $12.09 and $14.25, displaying a lack of strength, but buyers have maintained it from falling further. This bearishness is part of the larger crypto market, as most crypto assets are currently witnessing significant selling pressure that makes incoming buyers unable to overturn the downtrend.