What happened
As crypto investors look to skate to where the puck is headed, AI-related tokens and those involved in backend infrastructure supporting high-growth areas of the cryptocurrency market are coming into focus. Accordingly, today's 8.4% 24-hour move in Chainlink (LINK -4.42%) as of 11:45 a.m. ET shouldn't be surprising.
That's because Chainlink provides key functionality for various decentralized applications, such as decentralized exchanges, to operate. Via Chainlink's Oracle Price Feeds and other services, Chainlink allows for real-time off-chain data to be ported to the blockchain. This is invaluable to various projects looking to integrate with the blockchain.
Today, two key partnerships were announced that bolster the value proposition behind Chainlink, generating significant investor interest. Innovative fashion and lifestyle project PLAY! POP! GO! announced an integration with Chainlink's Verifiable Random Function on Ethereum. Additionally, market infrastructure and information provider TP ICAP announced it is joining the Chainlink ecosystem to bring forex data to provide analytics and tamper-resistant oracle reports.
These partnerships are big deals for Chainlink and follow yet another announced partnership earlier this week, in which Chainlink's oracle service and price feeds would be provided to blockchain scaling technology company StarkWare.
So what
This string of partnerships indicates that business development is far from dead in the crypto world. Indeed, many decentralized projects looking to create real-world utility are partnering with Chainlink. That's no accident -- the project's status as the leading oracle network enables much of the real-time data used to power the backend of much of the DeFi world.
Chainlink's importance to the growth of Web3 and decentralized finance overall should not be understated. Indeed, it appears today's price action with this token suggests that investors are in agreement that this project's value may be more substantial than what the market is pricing in right now.
Now what
These partnerships are certainly encouraging and drive a rather compelling investment thesis for Chainlink. In order for blockchain technology to become useful, backend support from projects like Chainlink are invaluable. Thus, there's reason to believe that Chainlink's value should appreciate over time as the crypto world expands.
Of course, it's unclear exactly how much growth is on the horizon -- last year was a pretty stark one in terms of growth in the crypto sector. However, for investors thinking very long term, this is an intriguing crypto to consider on such heavy news flow.
