What is Chainlink Crypto? Should I Buy?

I'm like, look at this drawdown and from the all time high. I mean, it went down 88% almost against Bitcoin. It is still down 78% against Bitcoin from its all time high. So, I mean, you haven't really missed out on anything at this point. What I'm looking for with LINK over the next few months. Hey, welcome back everybody to Altcoin Daily. Today, we're talking about a blue chip cryptocurrency, which historically has outperformed in Bitcoin bear markets. Of course, we're talking about Chainlink, a decentralized blockchain Oracle network built on Ethereum. The network is intended to be used to facilitate the transfer of tamper-proof data from off-chain sources to on-chain smart contracts. And of course, while it is built on Ethereum, it is blockchain agnostic, so it can connect with any of them. Chainlink has connected with, in fact, over 1,500 different projects, from crypto, to startups, to large enterprises that use Chainlink's decentralized Oracles to securely connect smart contracts with off-chain data and services. And then of course, within the Chainlink project, there's different products, different services that Chainlink offers. One, supporting decentralized data feeds. Two, providing verifiable sources of randomness. Three, enabling automation. And four, supporting cross-blockchain interoperability. Today, my friends, we are joined with none other than the Benjamin Cowen into the crypto-verse, been talking about Chainlink since the very beginning, and he has a lot of information to share with us today. Benjamin Cowen, how are you doing today? Pretty good. It's a pleasure to be back here. I always like coming on here and talking about crypto with you. Definitely. Now, if you subscribe to my channel, Benjamin, I know you do, and I subscribe to yours, you know that Chainlink, besides connecting with Ethereum and Solana and Phantom and all that stuff, besides, you know, being the blockchain Oracle service for Gemini, for Kraken, for Binance, for Coinbase, besides that, Chainlink, of course, has been integrated by Swift. That was a big one. Big one. The global provider of secure financial services. Everybody, you know, the Ethereum people wanted it to happen with them. The Bitcoin people wanted Bitcoin to basically be, you know, obsolete Swift. Well, Swift is still around. It's still the blue chip in, you know, legacy, traditional, and it's amazing that they integrated Chainlink. That's what excites me about the project, including, you know, the Associated Press, Amazon Web Service. It seems like there's no other game in town, but my question for you, Ben, before we get into the charts, is what excites you most about Chainlink? Why have you been talking about it since, you know, the beginning? For me, I think Chainlink sort of acts as a backbone for a lot of cryptocurrencies. I would argue that it's sort of integrated itself into so many different projects over the years. I mean, as you mentioned, I don't know the exact number like you do, but we've seen over the years just how many cryptocurrency projects it's sort of integrated itself into, and I would argue that it provides a very valuable service in providing, like, real-time feeds via the blockchain. One of the reasons why I think it hasn't done as well recently, obviously, is not necessarily because Chainlink isn't a great project. It's more so just because of the overall market risk and the fact that we are, in fact, in a bear market. But I do think the fundamentals of Link, I actually have a whole video on my channel called, like, what is Chainlink, where I go through it, but I think the fundamentals of Chainlink shine through a bit better in the bear market than they sometimes do in the bull market, if that makes sense. Definitely. I mean, there's price and then there's value, and sometimes the two do not correlate, and you want to look in the bear market for these projects that have a lot of value. So let's jump into the charts, Benjamin. I want to know, is Chainlink undervalued? Hit the like button if you appreciate having Benjamin on. Benjamin, I can see your screen. OK, so I just want to show you a few charts here. The first one is just Link USD, and I would argue that we're potentially at a very similar phase that we were at, sort of in the middle of 2018. But one of the things that I always found really interesting with Chainlink is that, and I know you are very familiar with what happened with crypto at the very end of 2018, right? We saw the floor collapse, right? But what was interesting with Link is that it actually did not put in a lower low. Sort of the low that it put in was actually in the summer of 2018, and that was something that really got my attention back then. I mean, I did hold Link, I did hold some in 2018. I think the earliest I bought any was before, I know it was before the final crash in 2018, I remember that for sure. But it sort of grabbed my attention that, hey, this is going to be a good project if at the end of the bear market, the end of the capitulation that sent Bitcoin down 50 percent and a lot of altcoins down 80 percent, Link was still able to hold its prior low. And then ever since then, it went through this crazy bull market and it peaked out in May of 2021, which arguably the entire crypto asset class arguably has been in a bear market really since mid 2021. And we sort of leveraged our way up to the November peak. But one of the interesting things is that one could make the argument that we're sort of at a similar phase right now on the Link USD chart that we were kind of over here. And what you'll notice is that Link actually had a bit of a pop, you know, right before we had another another leg down in the overall crypto market. What I'm looking for with Link over the next few months, because I mean, this year I've actually been relatively light on my altcoin stack. But of course, I don't want to stay light on my altcoin stack forever because I do think that, you know, cryptocurrency is much more than just Bitcoin. I do think we're going to have lots of cryptocurrencies in the future. One of the things I'm looking for is how well does Link hold up if we do get, you know, some some more fear closer to the end of the year with the Fed continuing to raise interest rates? And how does it hold up against Bitcoin? Because here's the really interesting thing. If you look at the Link USD chart, you'll see that it was sort of just in an accumulation phase or say the second half of 2018. If you look at the Link Bitcoin chart, I've had this chart like literally on my Link Bitcoin tab for a long time now. You'll notice that it was already in an uptrend against Bitcoin throughout 2018 and then really built into this, you know, manic bull market that Link Bitcoin actually topped during the DeFi summer of 2020. I mean, that was a great summer for a lot of DeFi projects. And you can see that it actually peaked right there. But what's interesting is how since then we've just sort of gone through the same bubble pop scenario that we've seen time and time again. But this one's on the Link Bitcoin pair. And noticeably, I would argue that this here could be the despair phase, right? Sort of that despair phase that we've seen happen in a lot of these crypto assets before in the past. But I would argue that this is somewhat similar. And what I'm looking look what I'm looking towards is as we as we continue to navigate, you know, whether we're whether we're whether the bear market is over or not, or whether we have another leg down, only time will tell. But what happens over the next three to six months can Link USD sort of hold around these levels, even if crypto has another leg down? And if it does, is Link Bitcoin sort of just getting back onto its its meat, right? Like it's sort of the average path that it's been on. I think that's sort of what's what Link USD and Link Bitcoin are in the process of doing. Link Bitcoin is sort of trying to reclaim the path that it was once on. And I think as we get on this path and as crypto eventually the crypto winter will fall and as that falls, and I think you really could be looking at, you know, at a relatively undervalued asset, of course, in the short term, who really knows? Because, I mean, if equities get another leg down in the next three to six months, I'm sure it'll have an effect on crypto. But I do think these are some really interesting charts to be looking at with respect to to Link and Link USD and Link Bitcoin. So what I hear you saying is Chainlink might be undervalued, but not necessarily. There might be a lower low. I think right now, I think the so I right. But I think about it in terms of like the idiosyncratic risk and the market risk. So the idiosyncratic risk is just based on what Link is doing. And then the market risk is based on like what everything else is doing, right? Like Bitcoin, Ethereum, like what is everything else doing? I think Link is is looking relatively strong. OK, so I think it looks strong against Bitcoin. I think it's looking strong against Ethereum. And I would say you could I think you could make the case that it is undervalued against Bitcoin right now. I think you could probably make the case that it is undervalued. I mean, look at this. I mean, like, look at this drawdown and from the all time high. I mean, it went down 88 percent almost against Bitcoin. It is still down 78 percent against Bitcoin from its all time high. So, I mean, you haven't really missed out on anything at this point. But I think it's probably undervalued against Bitcoin. If we take a look at the Link Ether chart, you could also argue that it's going through a similar phase like it did sort of in the middle of 2018, right, where it kind of puts in these lows and then it gets it recovers a little bit. But even though Link ETH was going up during this phase, Link USD was still struggling a bit right until until the bear market was actually over. But I think to answer your question bluntly, I think it probably is undervalued against Bitcoin and Ethereum. The only sort of question in the air is, can it go lower against the US dollar? And obviously that's going to be dependent on the overall market risk and not really anything related to Chainlink. Now, a catalyst that not many people are talking about because it's still kind of in the beginning is that Chainlink is moving to proof of stake this December. They're offering early access. If you meet certain requirements that you can start staking your Chainlink and pretty soon that'll be open to everybody. And, you know, kind of the thought is that that just like Ethereum staking, the Link will be good for supply and demand and will make it have better tokenomics. Any thoughts? I mean, I think, look, this is this is I mean, them going to proof of stake has been something we've been waiting for forever. I mean, I it's hard to imagine it's still 2022 and it hasn't happened. I said the same thing about Ethereum, you know, for years. But yeah, I think ultimately it's a good thing. I mean, I also think it's a good thing for Ethereum as well. I think it is a good transition for Link to make the whole idea of locking your tokens off and earning interest, I do think makes a lot of sense. And I think a lot of crypto investors have hopefully learned their lessons from two high yields right over the last year in certain projects. So, yeah, I think it's a good thing going forward. And I mean, I do think that's probably one of the reasons why you are starting to see some of the relative strength against Bitcoin and Ethereum. I mean, like, you know, the the the narrative for Ethereum's valuation, right, at least in the short term, has been spent, right, like the merge. OK, so now we have to wait a while for a new narrative to pop up. But Link still arguably has some strong narratives coming up here over the next several months. So, yeah, I do think it's a good thing and will probably contribute to Link staying somewhat strong against the blue chip cryptos. So I don't want to put words in your mouth, Benjamin, but it sounds to me like you're still bullish on Chainlink, just as bullish as you were back in the day and it served you pretty well. Are you just as bullish and how bullish are you? Yeah, I mean, long term, I'm definitely bullish. I do think I wish it would have performed a bit better at the end of the bear market, you know, to keep up with some of the other cryptos. But that's just how it is. I am actually I think one of the lessons I learned with Chainlink about being bullish is that I'm going to stay I'll stay bullish on it once the once I'm more convinced the bear market is over. But I also don't want to let it go too far. So like Link Bitcoin's run was over before Bitcoin ran itself. So I have to remember that, right? Like once Bitcoin starts running in the future, Link's probably going to take a backseat for a while. But listen, 2019, Link did really, really well after the bear market. And if history repeats every four years or so, I mean, we're coming up on 2023. I am I would say I am bullish on on the Link Bitcoin valuation and the Link Ether valuation with them getting to, you know, back to what their normal sense is. Again, you know, I know you want to impress me on the Link USD. Like, you know, how bullish am I? My main caution right now is just recessionary concerns. And Fed Federal Reserve concerns, raising interest rates into a slowing economy. I don't really know exactly how hard that's going to hit projects like Chainlink. So, again, I think against the U.S. dollar, it's probably 50-50 on what it does. But I think against Bitcoin and ETH, you could you could easily make the case that you should be bullish. Whoa, Benjamin, you're telling me that the inflation, currency devaluation, the Fed tightening, the equity indices breaking their June lows, the comparisons between the financial 2008 financial crisis, the S&P closing three red quarters in a row, the sovereign debt crisis, OPEC cutting oil production, Putin waging war against the West. You're telling me all that these macro conditions are making you a tad bit, you know, tepid about the next year? Yeah, just just a little bit. You know, I mean, like like maybe Link doesn't hold up always the best under those conditions. But we'll see. We'll see. I mean, the thing is, is eventually we will come out of it. And and that's why I'm drawing the distinction between like Link Bitcoin and Link USD and Link ETH, because it's all about like relative performance, right? Like it's all about relative performance. And I do think Link is probably starting to finally look strong against some of the blue chip counterpoints. But yeah, I mean, against the U.S. dollar, man, if if the S&P goes through a final capitulation or something like we've seen in prior, I mean, look, the last 10 years has been pretty fun for financial markets, right? Like just money printing galore. But if we see something like, you know, what we saw in 2000 or 2008 or even going back even further, then, yeah, I mean, we're we're likely in some pain for a while on all USD valuations of most risk assets. I feel it. Benjamin, thank you so much for jumping on the channel today and updating us on Chainlink. This is why I subscribe to you. I encourage our audience to go subscribe to you. Give us some final alpha for our audience, Benjamin. Some final alpha. Well, the only thing I mean, a lot of things I talk about on my channel right now are how the Bitcoin dominance should go much higher. But while I say that, there's always a few altcoins that outperform Bitcoin, even when the dominance is going higher. And if history is any indication at the end of a bear market and an accumulation phase before an ex bull market, Chainlink is is a is a reasonable place to look. But again, one last thing, if you guys are watching from my channel, make sure you subscribe to Altcoin Daily as well. I mean, they've been putting out videos for a long time and always have a lot of great discussions. Classy move, Benjamin. Thank you so much, man. Thanks for having me.