Chainlink’s early access staking attracts $632m in LINK

Chainlink’s early access staking program quickly maxes out, with $632 million in LINK staked, indicating strong community interest.

Eligible users staked some 40.8 million Chainlink (LINK) tokens worth an estimated $632 million during the protocol’s early access staking program, signaling strong interest in its v0.2 infrastructure.

Stakers filled the allocation within six hours after Chainlink raised its pool limit from 25 million LINK in v0.1 to 45 million under the latest iteration, accounting for 8% of the token’s circulation supply. Chainlink said it would allow general access on Dec. 11, enabling anyone to stake up to 15,000 LINK.

This move to provide a revamped staking model is reportedly part of Chainlink’s Economic 2.0 plan. The project said it would expand its ecosystem to new users and reward stakers for on-chain participation. 

Specifically, Chainlink Staking enables ecosystem participants, such as node operators and community members, to back the performance of oracle services with staked LINK and earn rewards for helping secure the network.

Chainlink press release

The price of LINK surged as much as 12% on Dec. 8 when early access was announced and the crypto exchanged hands for around $16.61 per Coingecko. LINK’s price surged 35% in late October 2023, ahead of the new staking mechanism.

Chainlink, one of crypto’s largest data oracles, has recorded several developments in 2023, including deploying its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) on Coinbase’s Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 scaling network, Base.

The protocol was also caught in controversy after changing security measures overseeing its multi-signature wallet. Users took to X scrutinizing Chainlink for switching the necessary signers from a 4-of-9 threshold to 4-of-8.