Chainlink’s (LINK) base of wallets is expanding on Ethereum (ETH) while its price continues to face market headwinds.

New Santiment data puts the count at a record 900,000, and a wave of fresh integrations suggests the growth is not accidental.

Chainlink Adoption Grows While Price Lags

The figure marks an all-time high for non-empty LINK wallets on Ethereum, with more than 20,000 added over the past month. Data from Santiment shows the additions came without a price breakout. 

“That kind of holder growth is usually a sign of long-term confidence,” Santiment said.

The context makes the trend notable. LINK trades near $7.9, down roughly 49% over the past year and about 85% below its 2021 peak. Sentiment remains weak, yet the base of wallets continues to grow rather than shrink.

“LINK’s holder base growing during weak market conditions is a strong signal. Price may still need market-wide momentum, but adoption is clearly moving in the right direction,” Santiment added.

Aave Deepens CCIP Reliance

Santiment tied the growth to Chainlink’s widening role as market infrastructure, citing its use across DeFi, tokenized assets, data feeds, and cross-chain settlement. The firm said institutional tokenization, adoption of the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), and capital-market integrations are expanding.

Recently, Aave (AAVE) selected Chainlink’s CCIP to power vault rebalancing, deposits, and transfers inside its mobile app. 

It is one of several recent adopters. Chainlink’s latest adoption update logged eight integrations of its standard across four services and four chains, with users including Commertize, Mantle, Poppie Finance, and YuzuMoney.

CCIP now spans 35 chains and supports 76 cross-chain tokens. Tokenized-asset value on the protocol climbed 36.5% to $330.21 million over 30 days, per RWA.xyz data recorded on July 14.

That tension defines the current setup. Adoption signals point one way, price points another, and the coming quarters will test whether usage eventually pulls the token with it.

Source: BeInCrypto