Grayscale's Chainlink ETF Launch Garners $41 Million on First Day, Yet Lacks ‘Blockbuster’ Appeal

Grayscale’s Chainlink ETF Launch

Grayscale’s introduction of the first US spot Chainlink exchange-traded fund (ETF) attracted considerable attention on its inaugural trading day, showcasing that investors remain interested in regulated altcoin offerings despite a general downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

The Chainlink (LINK) ETF initially drew in $41 million in net inflows and achieved $13 million in robust trading volume on its first day, according to a Wednesday post by Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg. He remarked:

“$41m in first day flows. Another insta-hit from the crypto world, the only dud so far was Doge, but it’s still early.”

The performance of the ETF indicates that many institutional and professional investors are patiently waiting for more formal channels to gain access to altcoins that align with corporate or fund strategies.

Source: Eric Balchunas

In contrast, the Solana (SOL) ETF managed to accumulate only $8.2 million in its first-day trading, while the XRP (XRP) ETF continues to dominate the altcoin ETF launches this year with $243 million in first-day inflows.

ETF Analyst Weighs In

Despite the Chainlink ETF’s decent debut, it has not been labeled a “blockbuster.” Currently, the fund holds $64 million in total assets, originating from an initial allocation of $18 million, as noted by James Seyffart, an ETF analyst, in a post made on Wednesday. He commented:

“Chainlink showing that longer tail assets can find success in the ETF wrapper too.”

Unfortunately, while the LINK token’s value has increased by 9.8% over the past week, this momentum did not counteract the token’s 39% decline over the previous year, as shown by Cointelegraph data.

LINK/USD, one-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph

The LINK token is essential to the Chainlink ecosystem, utilized to reward validating node operators and to pay for the services that support the protocol’s oracle data feed. Chainlink’s decentralized oracle and cross-chain services are crucial for facilitating the development of intricate decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.