Massive short squeeze triggers 52% price rally for Chainlink
The short squeeze happened in the futures market on August 8
LINK has reached a new ATH of $13.8799 at press time
Cryptocurrency News Today – in recent days, the price movement of some digital assets have improved. One of such assets that have unexpectedly risen is Chainlink. A recent look at Chainlinks price action shows that the coin has set a new price record.
The DeFi-related digital token surged by 52% in the last 24-hours of trade. The coin managed to reach a new ATH at press time and is changing hands at $13.8799. In the last 24-hours, LINK price has rallied from $9.05 to $13.8799. As Chainlink showed a strong bullish action, major competitor Band Protocol (BAND) also spiked by 50% and posted an ATH of $12.44. The question is what is behind these two protocols that are based on the Oracle network?
Massive Short Squeeze Triggers 52% Price Rally for Chainlink
The sudden rise in the price of LINK may have been caused by the recent squeeze of short contracts that happened in the futures market. LINK continuously rallied even though its funding rate remained under 0% (at -0.02%). The futures market uses a mechanism known as “funding” to make sure the market remains balanced. Hence, when the market is swayed toward buyers, buyers must incentivize sellers and the other way around.
Here is an example: if many traders are shorting Chainlink on Binance Futures, LINKs funding rate would remain negative. Such situations allow sellers or short contract holders to pay long contract holders allowing them to maintain their places. In the last few hours, LINk rose despite having a consistent negative funding rate on Binance Futures. Meaning as the coin’s price rose traders were trying to short the asset.
A Continuous Loop of Contracts May Have Triggered the Squeeze
A look at the situation shows that a continuous loop of short contracts triggered a short squeeze, which. Which in turn increased the demand for LINK and fueled the coin’s momentum. According to a pseudonymous trader called Benjamin Blunts while in theory LINK was appealing to short, the overall market sentiment remains bearish.
When the crypto market is overcrowded on one side, it automatically tends to move opposite. The biggest narrative relating to LINK during its recent rally mostly focuses on Zeus Capital. Although, the firm has maintained a skeptical stance toward Chainlink in public expecting the price of LINK to drop drastically. One crypto investor is known as “Light” advised that Zeus Capital holds a huge short position on LINK (a risk of liquidation). It is still unclear whether one short-seller was behind the immense impact on LINK considering its $2 billion 24-hour trade volume.