When a company with a lot of capital decides to accumulate an asset, it can change the character of the asset's performance by making supply tighter and creating a potential new buyer of dips.
That is now starting to happen for Chainlink (LINK 1.93%): On Tuesday, a real estate asset management company called Caliber reported its first purchase of the token for an undisclosed sum, and proposed a plan to keep buying it as part of a formal digital asset treasury program. If that program sticks, investors just got a new, visible, long-horizon holder in their corner. Here's why that's another reason to buy this token.
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This token is now on the shopping list
First, let's examine in closer detail what Caliber actually did and what it plans to do.
In short, Caliber said that it had completed an initial purchase of Chainlink as a test and that it intends to build a substantial position through consistent purchases, funded by an equity line of credit, cash on its books, and sales of equity-based securities. The stated goals are long-term appreciation and the generation of a yield via staking. Presently, staking the token earns a yield of around 4.3% annually.
The new crypto treasury strategy is a centerpiece of Caliber's digital asset push, as the company joins the crowd of businesses attempting to launch or rebrand themselves as crypto hoarders. If other corporate buyers show up for Chainlink, and they might, the market will need to coax existing holders to sell by offering higher prices.
For now, though, Caliber is the only such player specifically targeting it.
Why a new long-term holder is a real catalyst for Chainlink
This new development slots neatly into Chainlink's growing role at the intersection of blockchains and traditional finance, which is what's generally responsible for generating demand for the token.
As an oracle coin, Chainlink's main purpose is to provide smart contracts operating on blockchains with a trusted source for real-world data for everything from economic metrics to commodity prices and more. When banks building blockchain applications need a way to import such data, they can do so using Chainlink.
On the supply side, Chainlink's token economics feature a total supply of 1 billion, about 680 million of which are circulating today. Scheduled supply releases are currently approximately 7% of total supply per year. So, investors can easily gauge how new issuance compares with new demand from long-term accumulators, assuming they reveal the sizes of their purchases. Caliber has not yet done that, which makes it hard to speculate about any price impact from its strategy for now.
For the float to tighten (which would tend to boost prices), the pace of investors accumulating and staking Chainlink would need to exceed the pace at which new tokens enter circulation. Corporate treasuries' enthusiasm can become fickle if their access to credit or accounting rules change, but the takeaway here is that a new influx of regular demand for Chainlink will be unambiguously positive for the token, even if it is still unclear precisely how positive it will be.
Even with those caveats, the foundation of a new buyer cohort is a meaningful step forward for the token's investment thesis because it denotes significant progress in the asset's maturation from an altcoin to a crypto major. In other words, if Caliber and a few peers start buying it on a schedule, Chainlink's profile shifts from being an up-and-coming token to a mainstream cryptoasset that's owned by institutions. Such assets tend to attract more conservative capital over time.
For investors, Caliber's digital asset treasury move is thus another reason to buy Chainlink. Keep an eye out for any evidence of recurring corporate purchases, or for newly announced institutional pilot programs that use Chainlink's platform maturing into actual production programs.
