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Chainlink price retracted 5% on Thursday, June 20, 2024, as bulls failed to build on the 10% rebound recorded 48 hours prior; on-chain data shows that whale investors offloading behind the scenes could be behind the latest pull-back.
Chainlink Dips 5% as Bears Halt Rebound Phase
Chainlink price entered double-digit gains between June 18 and June 19, as SEC dropping investigations into Ethereum triggered a brief rebound phase across the crypto markets.
But as the US S&P 500, led by chip-manufacturing giant NVIDIA, surged to new peaks on Wednesday, it attracted the attention of savvy crypto traders, some of whom appear to have now redirected the short-term gains toward the roaring stock markets.
As things stand at the time of writing on June 20, the $LINK price has succumbed to another wave of bearish pressure.
The chart above shows how $LINK price had gained 14.33% after having tumbled toward $12.98 on June 18. Notably, that was the first time in 32-days, dating back to May 15, that Chainlink price had fallen below critical $13 mark.
This brief Chainlink price rebound was evidently fuelled by the bullish sentiment surrounding the SEC’s softened stance toward Ethereum. However, after hitting a major resistance cluster around the $15 mark, bears are now back in the driving seat.
Chainlink Whales Offload $40M as SEC Ends Ethereum Investigations
The latest price data shows $LINK wobbled 5% within the daily timeframe as it rapidly retraced toward the $14 territory at the time of writing on June 20. Looking at the underlying on-chain data, it appears that Chainlink whale investors took advantage of the brief market recovery to the stage and offload some of their holdings.
The Santiment chart below tracks real-time changes in the balance of $LINK tokens held by Chainlink’s top 1,000 largest whale wallets.
The yellow-shaded trendline in the chart above shows how the top 100 whale wallets held a total of 704.47 million $LINK tokens as of June 16, having sat firmly on to their holdings as the month-long crypto market correction phase ensued.
But on June 17, when the news of Ethereum’s landmark legal clearance from the SEC broke, the Chainlink whales instantly entered a selling frenzy. At the time of publication on June 20, the top 100 largest $LINK whales now hold a cumulative balance of 702.22 million $LINK.
This effectively means that Chainlink whales sold off about 2.25 million $LINK tokens between June 17 and June 20. Valued at the current price of about $14.20 per coin, the recently offloaded coins are worth approximately $40 million.
Such a rapid selling trend among whale investors is often regarded as a major bearish signal. Unsurprisingly, the whales’ selling frenzy coincided with the 5% price correction recorded on Thursday.
Chainlink price forecast: $13 Support at Risk Again
Despite the 5% correction toward $14.2, Chainlink’s price is still a healthy distance from the weekly timeframe bottom of $12.98 recorded on June 18. But when whale investors sell off such a large amount of coins within a short period, it sends bearish signals to other strategic retail traders within the ecosystem.
Having breached the $13 support earlier in the week, bears could now target a much larger downswing toward $12.
However, IntoTheBlock’s GIOM chart shows that $LINK bulls will like move the support buy-wall toward the $12.40 area. As seen above, 59,180 active addresses had acquired 67,88 million $LINK at the average price of $12.43. To avoid massive loss liquidations bull traders could start staging covering purchases once $LINK price start tumbling towards the $12.40 area.
But if that support buy-wall caves in, Chainlink’s price could experience further downside toward the $11 mark.
On the flip side, bulls could gain a foothold in the markets again if Chainlink can reclaim the $15 psychological resistance in the days ahead.