Grayscale’s introduction of the first U.S. spot Chainlink exchange-traded fund (ETF) attracted significant attention on its inaugural trading day, indicating that investors remain interested in regulated altcoin products amidst a broader decline in the crypto market.
Grayscale’s Chainlink (LINK) ETF launched with $41 million in net inflows and a trading volume of $13 million on its first day, as reported by Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, in a Wednesday X post. “$41m in first-day flows. Another instant success from the crypto scene; the only outlier has been Doge, but it’s still early.”
This debut highlights the potential interest from institutional and professional investors who are looking for more regulated avenues to gain exposure to altcoins that can fit into corporate or fund strategies.
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In contrast, the Solana (SOL) ETF launched with only $8.2 million in initial trading volume, according to Farside Investors data.
The spot XRP (XRP) ETF remains a leader in altcoin ETF launches this year, having achieved $243 million in first-day inflows, according to SosoValue.
Related: Bank of America backs 1%–4% crypto allocation, opens door to Bitcoin ETFs
Link ETF debut was successful but not a “blockbuster,” says ETF analyst
While the Chainlink ETF’s launch was not a “blockbuster success,” it currently holds $64 million in total assets, stemming from an initial $18 million seed allocation, wrote ETF analyst James Seyffart in a Wednesday X post. “Chainlink shows that longer-tail assets can also succeed within the ETF framework.”
In financial terminology, long-tail assets refer to less popular and less liquid assets, which are typically linked to greater risks and rewards.
Even though the LINK token’s price increased by 9.8% over the past week, the ETF’s debut could not prevent a 39% decline in the token’s value over the last year, according to Cointelegraph data.
LINK serves as the native utility token for the Chainlink network, utilized to compensate validator node operators and to pay for the protocol’s oracle data feed services.
Chainlink offers decentralized applications and asset tokenization protocols dependable real-world data feeds to ensure secure and precise smart contract execution.
Chainlink’s decentralized oracle and cross-chain interoperability services are fundamental for developers constructing more intricate decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
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