Bitwise says investors may be underestimating one of crypto’s most critical infrastructure projects.
Chainlink (LINK), trading at $12.25 with a market capitalization near $10 billion, is one of Bitwise’s top-conviction holdings. Despite its significance, it rarely features in mainstream crypto discussions—a gap the firm attributes not to weak fundamentals, but to the asset’s complexity.
“I believe it is one of the least understood, most important, and possibly most undervalued crypto assets,” wrote Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s chief investment officer, in a Tuesday blog post.
Often described as middleware that provides blockchains with real-world data such as asset prices or event outcomes, Chainlink’s function goes far beyond that. Hougan compares calling it a “data oracle” to calling Amazon just a bookstore.
Founded in 2017 by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis, Chainlink is a decentralized network that securely connects smart contracts to off-chain information. By enabling blockchains to access external data, it has become a key infrastructure layer linking digital networks to real-world systems.
Chainlink allows otherwise isolated blockchains to interact with markets, institutions, and each other. Without it, networks are like offline spreadsheets—capable of computation but unable to operate in real-world financial systems.
From an institutional perspective, the case is clear. Stablecoins rely on Chainlink for price feeds, proof-of-reserves, and cross-chain transfers. Tokenized stocks and bonds use it for pricing, compliance, and settlement, while DeFi apps, prediction markets, and on-chain derivatives depend on its reliable data.
Adoption spans crypto-native and traditional institutions, including SWIFT, DTCC, JPMorgan, Visa, Mastercard, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Euroclear, and Deutsche Börse.
Hougan concluded, “For investors bullish on stablecoins, tokenization, DeFi, or real-world crypto adoption, Chainlink sits at the center of all of it.”
