Key takeaways
Why is Chainlink giving up?
A whale sold 1.62 million LINK as Spot Taker CVD showed sales dominance for a week.
What lies ahead for LINK price?
If LINK stays below $16.50, liquidation clusters suggest a further 45% decline.
A large whale landed 1.62 million people Chain link (LINK) worth $28.9 million, intensifying selling pressure in the market.
The move raised concerns about whether LINK’s downtrend could deepen or whether a short-term rebound could follow.
Sellers remain in control
This massive drop occurred as the overall cryptocurrency market struggled to gain momentum, and LINK was no exception.
At press time, LINK was trading at $17.40, down 3.35% in 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap. Trading volume jumped 18% to $1.23 billion, signaling strong speculative activity despite the decline.
Furthermore, the latest data from CryptoQuant revealed that last week’s Spot Taker CVD (Cumulative Volume Delta) showed strong dominance of Taker Sell in the market.
Source: CryptoQuant
Between October 15 and 22, the chart featured consistent red bars, suggesting that selling pressure exceeded buying activity throughout the week.
This indicates that market participants are increasingly offloading their holdings, which suggests a possible continuation of the bearish dynamic, unless buying interest returns in the coming days.
LINK price action and upcoming level
LINK’s bearish outlook has further strengthened due to the price action, as it appears to form its second consecutive red candle on the daily chart, hovering near the key support level of $16.50.
On the daily chart, LINK was hovering near the $16.50 support, printing its second consecutive red candle and remaining below the 200-day EMA ($18.97).
At the same time, its Average Directional Index (ADX) stands at 39.31 (well above the key threshold of 25), indicating strong directional momentum, suggesting that the trend may continue in the coming days.
Source: TradingView
Based on price action, a sustained hold above $16.40 could trigger a 23% rally towards $21.50. Failure to hold this zone could result in a 45% decline towards $8.70, reflecting previous breakout levels.
Liquidation Map signals resistance at $18.5
Derived metrics echoed a similar weakness. CoinGlass’ LINK Exchange liquidation chart showed significant short positioning around $18.50, totaling $21.05 million, compared to $7.19 million in long positions near $17.10.
Source: CoinGlass
Across exchanges, Binance, OKX, and Bybit contributed to cumulative short leverage.
The data indicates that traders expected LINK to remain capped below $18.50, viewing any bounce as a short selling opportunity rather than a breakout setup.
