Chainlink has unlocked 19 million LINK worth approximately $269 million, according to a set quarterly schedule.
The latest token issuance has attracted attention amid concerns about large volume trading related to a prominent trader on the Hyperliquid platform.
The latest token unlock from Chainlink
Of the total 19 million unlocked tokens, 14.8 million LINK (worth $212.9 million) was sent to Binance. This may be to increase liquidity for the exchange, as most of LINK's trading volume occurs on Binance.
The remaining 4.2 million LINK (worth $56.2 million) was transferred to a multi-signature wallet labeled 0xD50. This token distribution action is not new, as Chainlink has consistently followed this model for years.
Data from SpotOnChain reveals that since August 2022, Chainlink has unlocked 176 million LINK, worth approximately $2 billion at that time and $2.43 billion at current prices.
Quarterly LINK unlock | Source: SpotOnChain
Of this, 151.3 million LINK was sent directly to Binance at an average price of $11.41.
Nevertheless, Chainlink still holds 342.5 million LINK, worth $4.7 billion, in non-circulating supply contracts.
Hyperliquid trader shifts focus to LINK
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain identified a prominent whale shifting focus to LINK. This trader, known as 'ETH 50x Big Guy', attracted attention by executing leveraged trades that resulted in a $4 million loss for Hyperliquid.
On March 14, this whale opened a Long position of $31,000 LINK with 10x leverage, executing trades on Hyperliquid and GMX – two major perpetual contract exchanges. Additionally, the whale purchased 863,174 LINK for $12.1 million USDC.
Mysterious trader on Hyperliquid Long LINK | Source: Lookonchain
However, on-chain data shows that whales have gradually reduced their LINK holdings through many small transactions converting to stablecoins just a few hours after opening Long positions.
This trader first drew attention on March 12 after testing the trading framework of Hyperliquid. The platform lost $4 million, prompting them to announce upcoming risk management changes.
Hyperliquid announced that starting from 07:00 on March 15, traders will need to maintain a 20% margin ratio on margin trades. This update will not affect cross-margin trading unless cross-margin usage exceeds 5x after opening a standalone position.
This update aims to maintain healthier margin requirements and reduce the systemic impact of large positions with assumed market impact when closing, Hyperliquid explained.
Despite the changes, Hyperliquid reassured users that they can still trade with leverage up to 40x. This update specifically targets realizing profits and unrealized losses (PnL) from open positions.
Meanwhile, these incidents did not negatively affect the price of LINK, recovering to $14 in the past 24 hours. This reverses a 12% decline from last week and a 27% drop over the past month.
