TLDR
- Chainlink price rose 4% to $8.74, with weekly gains of around 7%
- Whale transactions hit a 5-month high, with 246 transfers over $100,000 in 24 hours
- Large holders now control 46.57% of LINK’s total supply
- LINK broke a multi-month downtrend on August 11, with targets at $10.87 and $12.20
- Derivatives trading volume jumped 52% to $524.77 million, open interest up 13%
Chainlink (LINK) is getting attention again after a burst of whale activity and a price breakout that traders have been waiting on for months.
LINK rose 4% to trade around $8.74, extending its weekly gain to roughly 7%. That puts it among the better performers in the current market.
The price is holding above the $8 support level, which keeps the short-term picture positive.
Whale Activity Surges
Data from Santiment shows that Chainlink recorded 246 separate transactions exceeding $100,000 in a single 24-hour period. That is the highest daily whale count in five months.
🔗 Live Chart: https://t.co/5wlYZ9x9jz
🐳 Chainlink whale activity has seen a significant spike. The network saw 246 separate $100K+ LINK transactions in 24 hours, its highest daily level in 5 months.
📈 This coincides with the fact that wallets holding 100K to 10M LINK now… pic.twitter.com/1EACyuTF1O
— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) August 12, 2026
Wallets holding between 100,000 and 10 million LINK now control 466.31 million tokens. That equals 46.57% of the total token supply.
These large holders have historically moved close to price action, which makes this level of activity worth watching.
Analyst Michaël van de Poppe commented on the LINK chart, saying it is making new higher highs and higher lows against Bitcoin. He stated the move is not stopping soon and that LINK should be valued more than it currently is.
Very solid chart on $LINK as it starts to make new higher highs and higher lows vs $BTC.
This is not stopping soon, the train has just started.
Very pleased to see the strength, as I think that $LINK should be valued significantly more. pic.twitter.com/skfqYfTVJW
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) August 12, 2026
On August 11, LINK broke a multi-month downtrend that had been in place since the start of 2026. The token opened the year at $12.20 and spent seven months forming lower lows and lower highs.
LINK hit a yearly low of $6.996 on June 6 before beginning its recovery.
Key Price Levels to Watch
The first key resistance level sits at $10.87. This was the protected high that marked the LINK bottom structure.
A break above that level would set up a retest of the yearly high at $12.20. Failure to hold current levels could see LINK pull back toward $8.50 or $8.30.
The Relative Strength Index sits at 69, close to overbought. The Chaikin Money Flow reading is at 0.24, showing strong capital inflows.
Derivatives activity backed up the move. Trading volume climbed 52.33% to $524.77 million, while open interest rose 13.21% to $540.34 million.
Standard Chartered Bank has set a price target of $200 for LINK by 2030, framing Chainlink as core infrastructure for a $4 trillion tokenization wave expected by 2028.
As of August 2026, Chainlink has facilitated over $33 trillion in transaction value and secures more than $48 billion in total value across its network.
