Chainlink (LINK) continued its bullish rally amid strong buying pressure in recent days, thereby setting a new all-time high at $25.50 and surpassing Litecoin (LTC) in terms of total market cap to become the seventh most valuable crypto.

What you should know: At the time of drafting this report, Chainlink traded at $25.31 with a daily trading volume of $3.9 billion. It has gained about 20,000 percent since its inception.

• Chainlink is a blockchain that is designed to bridge the space between blockchain technology-based smart contracts (created by ETH), and other user programs.
• Since blockchains by principle can’t have access to data outside their paths or networks, a DeFi instrument is needed to facilitate data feeds in smart contracts, and Chainlink helps to solve such needs.

Recall some days back, a highly revered crypto strategist, Michaël van de Poppe, listed some crypto assets that might likely overtake XRP as Polkadot did. Michaël, via his Twitter handle, revealed the cryptos expected to surpass XRP.

“Polkadot takes over spot 4 over XRP by market capitalization. Just a matter of time before Cardano, Chainlink, and Litecoin surpass XRP too.”

#Polkadot takes over spot 4 over #XRP by market capitalization.

Just a matter of time before #Cardano, #Chainlink and #Litecoin surpass #XRP too.

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) January 16, 2021

For enterprises, Chainlink is an abstraction layer that securely connects smart contracts to existing backend systems, massively expanding the kinds of business use cases that are possible, from parametric weather insurance to supply chain tracking.

Should you buy it now?

Many individuals have the impulse to enter a position when the price is soaring. But those support/resistance flips actually give the best entries. Specifically, the first area of concern for global investors is the $25 resistance level, on the bias that some crypto traders anticipate profit-taking amid its impressive run in recent days.

The buying interest on the world’s utility crypto, Ethereum, has been on a record high since the second half of 2020, amid an increased buying pressure from institutional investors and big capital.

Still, as the attention of the financial media got fixed on flagship crypto asset, bitcoin, recent trends show that Ether (ETH) is getting very attractive; they also reveal why this cryptocurrency should become the “first cryptocurrency” for every investor.

Recent data from Defi revealed that a lot of activity is ongoing on the Ethereum network, as Ethereum-based crypto market value has risen to over $48 billion from $1.9 Billon a year ago, according to data from Coingecko.

Several Defi crypto assets have had their share of the spotlight in recent times, with cryptos such as Chainlink, Compound, YAM, UniSwap, Cream finance, and Melon gaining investors’ capital inflows.

DeFi crypto owners, in some cases, can typically receive better interest rates than they would from traditional banks, on the basis that lower operating costs are enabled when operating on an automated decentralized network.

Using “Defi” technology, one can build smart contracts with codes that facilitate the actions of intermediaries, including managing and accepting deposits, handling collateralized loans, and liquidating collateral assets as per the terms of the contracts, should their values fluctuate.

What this means: Recall some days ago, Nairametrics broke the news that the amount of Ether held on crypto exchanges could go into extinction amid the high buying pressure seen in recent days.

Alex Saunders, a crypto expert, via Twitter, released key details on why Ether coins on crypto exchanges could be all gone within 48 hours amid high buying pressure.

“Exchanges could be out of $ETH within 48 hours. Demand has skyrocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10 million to 8 million in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range”

Exchanges could be out of $ETH within 48 hours. Demand has sky rocketed. Exchange reserves fell 20% from 10M to 8M in the last few hours. With targets of $5k, $10k & $20k long term, I doubt many HODLers will sell their ETH in the $1-2k range. 🌐🖥️👽 #ETH2 #DeFi #NFTs #Gaming #DAO pic.twitter.com/rYPOch2u7p

— Alex Saunders 🇦🇺👨‍🔬 (@AlexSaundersAU) January 14, 2021

That said, Ethereum (ETH) miners seem to have an edge now over their arch-rivals, as they have surpassed Bitcoin (BTC) miners on transaction fees charged for some months now.

Crypto market data aggregator, Messari revealed key metrics showing that it is the longest period for which Ethereum’s transaction fee revenue has surpassed BTC in the crypto asset’s history.

• This prevailing macro is positive for Ether miners whose turnovers have been increased by higher fees and more transactions. In fact, Ethereum’s network hash rate has been growing consistently, having reached a near two-year high.
• At the time of writing this report, Ethereum traded at $1,425.86 with a daily trading volume of $46 Billion. ETH price is up 13.2% for the day.

The leader of the biggest traded business intelligence firm, Michael Saylor recently disclosed why he believes the flagship crypto-asset, Bitcoin, could triple in value yearly.

In a Stansberry Research interview, Saylor explained Bitcoin is monetary energy that will attract lots of money;

“In a monetary expansion environment where I crank the monetary inflation rate up by 15%, that $300 trillion has got to find a store of value that’s not a fiat derivative.

READ: 94% of Bitcoin investors are making money

“That means that Bitcoin is going to keep growing and its monetary force is going to keep growing and it’s probably going to grow 200% a year until it has demonetized gold, silver, sovereign debt, bond indexes, stock indexes, every source of monetary energy which is just a store of value for someone that doesn’t want to lose their purchasing power and needs a scarce asset, ” Saylor said.

Another key macro supporting the bullish bias of Micheal Saylor is data showing the number of addresses holding 1,000 BTC just reached a new all-time high of 2,446.

Over the last 21 days, 141 new whale addresses with over 1k BTC were created, suggesting large entities are expecting a significant price rise for Bitcoin in the near future.

READ: 100 Crypto wallets have at least 10,000 Bitcoins

The number of addresses holding 1,000 BTC just reached a new all time high of 2,446.

Over the last 21 days, 141 new whale address with over 1k BTC were created, suggesting large entities are expecting a significant price rise for #Bitcoin in the near future.

Chart: @glassnode pic.twitter.com/D6vMXBLugy

— Bloqport (@Bloqport) January 21, 2021

READ: CBN retains MPR at 11.5%, holds other parameters constant

Some days ago, MicroStrategy purchased approximately 314 bitcoins for $10.0 million in cash in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy, at an average price of approximately $31,808 per bitcoin, showing they hold approximately 70,784 Bitcoin, and thereby making the flagship crypto-asset scarce.

MicroStrategy has purchased approximately 314 bitcoins for $10.0 million in cash in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy, at an average price of approximately $31,808 per bitcoin. We now hold approximately 70,784 bitcoins.https://t.co/zMJSH29bmC

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) January 22, 2021