Chainlink Price Prediction Points To $14.50 As Cup And Handle Breakout Confirms

The $LINK price prediction stays constructive as price consolidates near $10.45 after yesterday’s rally past 10%, holding well above the $6.50 cup base that formed between June and August. The pullback looks like routine profit taking rather than a reversal, with $LINK still sitting inside striking distance of the $11 breakout level.

Chainlink Price Analysis: Will $LINK Price Go Up After Its Cup and Handle Breakout?

$LINK spent from early June through early August carving out a rounded cup pattern, bottoming near $6.50 before climbing steadily back toward $9.00. That recovery ran into a smaller pullback in late July, forming a short handle, before price broke sharply higher this week, surging more than 10% in a single session to reach $10.62.

That breakout puts $LINK right back at the same resistance zone near $10.50 to $11.00 that capped price back in May. A confirmed move above $11 would put $LINK in territory it hasn’t traded in since February, and chart watchers see that level opening the door toward $14.50 next, a move of roughly 21% from current levels based on the measured pattern.

Today’s small pullback comes after a big move and looks like normal cooling off rather than a trend change. All four EMAs remain below current price, with the 20-day at $9.096 the nearest support, followed by the 50-day at $8.656 and the 100-day at $8.680. The 200-day EMA at $9.553 sits just below price as well, meaning the entire EMA stack has flipped bullish beneath $LINK for the first time in months.

$LINK Support and Resistance Levels, August 20, 2026

Chainlink News: Sergey Nazarov Credits Regulators for Record Stablecoin Growth

Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov spoke at a technology leaders event at the White House on August 20, crediting U.S. regulators for accelerating stablecoin adoption. Nazarov said the GENIUS Act and the movement of more government debt into stablecoins is putting the U.S. dollar into more hands globally than ever before, and pointed to the tokenization of stocks as the next area set to expand in the same way.

Nazarov said Chainlink powers many of these applications, giving the company direct visibility into the growth, and said current numbers show adoption of U.S. based assets hitting all time highs.

Chainlink News: Nethermind Leaves LayerZero, Joins Chainlink as Node Operator

Nethermind, a major Ethereum infrastructure firm supporting more than 16,000 validators and over $5 billion in delegated assets, announced on August 19 that it is leaving its role as a verifier for rival cross-chain platform LayerZero to become a Chainlink node operator. Nethermind said the move follows an extensive internal review and will see it help secure Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, known as CCIP, along with Chainlink’s Data Feeds.

Nethermind CEO Daniel Celeda called it a long-term bet on the infrastructure the firm believes will define the next era of on-chain finance. The move adds Nethermind to a growing list of firms that have shifted cross-chain operations to Chainlink since an April exploit drained $292 million from a LayerZero powered bridge used by Kelp DAO. Nethermind did not say whether that exploit factored into its decision, and no timeline was given for completing the migration.

Chainlink Derivatives: Volume Surges 150% as Longs Dominate

Chainlink’s derivatives volume jumped 150.30% to $1.14B over the past 24 hours, a sharp increase reflecting yesterday’s double digit price move. Open interest, the total value of open positions, rose a smaller 1.65% to $696.72M, showing that while a lot more trading happened, most of it was short term rather than building large new positions.

Positioning is heavily tilted toward longs. Binance shows 1.76 long positions for every short, and OKX shows 1.45, meaning traders are broadly betting on further upside. Binance’s top traders lean even more bullish, running close to a 2 to 1 ratio.

That bullish lean shows up clearly in liquidations, which happen when a leveraged bet gets force closed after price moves against it. Of the $8.76M liquidated over the past 24 hours, $8.13M came from short sellers getting caught out as price surged, while longs lost just $627.34K. Shorts took the entire hit in the most recent hour too, with $1.05K in long liquidations against zero in shorts, showing sellers are still getting squeezed as the rally holds.

$LINK Price Prediction: Upside and Downside Targets

Bullish Case, Target: $14.50 (Cup and Handle Measured Move)

$LINK holds today’s pullback above the 20-day EMA at $9.096 and pushes through the $11.00 resistance zone on a daily close, confirming the cup and handle breakout. Continued institutional attention following Nazarov’s White House appearance and Nethermind’s CCIP migration add fundamental support, while heavy short liquidations suggest sellers keep getting squeezed out. Clearing $11 opens the path toward the $14.50 measured target.

Bearish Case, Risk Level: $9.096 (20-day EMA)

The rally stalls at the $10.50 to $11.00 resistance zone and profit taking deepens into a broader pullback. $LINK loses the 20-day EMA at $9.096 on a daily close, pulling price back toward the 100-day and 50-day EMA cluster near $8.65 to $8.68. A failure to hold that zone would call the strength of the breakout into question, even with the bullish news backdrop.