Bitcoin’s price tapped a multi-week high yesterday at around $66,600 before it was pushed down by about a grand but has reclaimed the $66,000 level as of now.

Several altcoins have continued their recent rally, with LINK taking the main stage following a massive 18% surge.

BTC Back to $66K

The primary cryptocurrency had a tough end of the previous business week when it was brought down to just inches above $60,000. Instead of going below that coveted round-numbered milestone, though, the asset bounced off during the weekend and especially on Monday.

The bulls initiated an impressive leg-up at the start of the current week that drove bitcoin to just over $63,000. It failed there at first, dropping to $61,200 amid some Coinbase issues, but went back on the offensive on Wednesday after the US announced the CPI numbers for April.

As the spot Bitcoin ETF inflows kept increasing on Wednesday and Thursday, BTC’s price soared to a three-week high of just over $66,500. The asset retraced slightly yesterday evening but has jumped back above $66,000 as of now amid the fourth consecutive day of positive flows into those ETFs.

Its market cap remains slightly above $1.3 trillion, but its dominance over the alts has taken a hit and is down to 51.7%.

LINK Skyrockets

Most alternative coins turned green yesterday in a similar fashion to bitcoin. While some, such as BNB, DOGE, TON, TRX, and SHIB, are slightly in the red now, most others have kept climbing.

Ethereum and Ripple are up by 0.5-1%, which has helped the former maintain $3,000 and the latter $0.5. More gains come from the likes of SOL, ADA, AVAX, DOT, BCH, HBAR, and ICP.

However, Chainlink has stolen the show from the larger-cap alts. LINK has skyrocketed by more than 18% in the past day and now trades above $16.

The total crypto market cap has remained relatively still on a daily scale at just over $2.5 trillion on CG.

Chainlink (LINK) went through a massive price surge in the past day, rising over 18% following the successful completion of a pilot program with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

The pilot, known as Smart NAV, is an initiative aimed at streamlining the tokenization of traditional finance funds, paving the way for broader institutional adoption of blockchain technology.

DTCC Completes Blockchain Pilot Project

The DTCC, the world’s largest securities settlement system, collaborated with Chainlink and several major U.S. financial institutions to conduct the Smart NAV pilot. According to a report published by DTCC on Thursday, the project aimed to establish a standardized process for delivering and disseminating net asset value (NAV) data of funds across both private and public blockchains using Chainlink’s interoperability protocol, CCIP.

The pilot’s completion demonstrated that structured data could be effectively delivered on-chain and embedded into various on-chain use cases, such as tokenized funds and bulk consumer smart contracts. These smart contracts hold data for multiple funds and support future industry exploration and numerous downstream applications, including brokerage portfolio tools.

By integrating on-chain data delivery and creating standardized roles and processes, the DTCC found that it could enable real-time, more automated data dissemination and provide built-in access to historical data.

This innovation could power several future industry explorations and operational processes, offering benefits such as enhanced efficiency, faster settlements, and greater transparency.

Chainlink’s LINK token responded positively to the news of the pilot’s success, rising more than 18% at one point and exceeding $16 for the first time since April 12. At writing time, the token is trading at $16.5, with a daily trading volume of slightly over $1 billion, marking a 195.4% increase in the last 24 hours.

Real-World Assets Tokenization

The pilot comes amid a broader trend of tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) such as bonds, funds, and other traditional investments. Tokenization has emerged as one of the most popular applications for blockchain technology, attracting financial heavyweights such as BlackRock, Citi, and HSBC.

These institutions seek the benefits that blockchain technology offers, including operational efficiencies, faster settlements, and improved transparency compared to traditional financial systems.

Prominent financial entities participated in the Smart NAV project, including American Century Investments, BNY Mellon, Edward Jones, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, JPMorgan, MFS Investment Management, Mid Atlantic Trust, State Street, and U.S. Bank.

Smart NAV is centered around providing trusted, verifiable data across blockchain networks to support business workflows. DTCC served as the data provider and governor of the on-chain solution, while Chainlink’s CCIP acted as the interoperability layer.

TL;DR

• Shiba Inu’s layer-2 blockchain solution, Shibarium, saw daily transactions surge by 193%, although still below its peak activity from mid-April.
• A 4,000% increase in SHIB’s burn rate and positive analyst predictions hint at the potential for further price gains of 20-50%.

The Latest Spike

Shiba Inu’s layer-2 scaling solution – Shibarium – continues to make great strides, witnessing a substantial increase in transaction activity. Data shows that daily transactions on the network have soared to almost 18,000, a 193% jump compared to the figures observed a day earlier.

However, the metric is far from its glory days, which were registered in mid-April. Back then, daily transactions were in the millions.

Launched in the summer of 2023, Shibarium aims to foster the development of the meme coin by enhancing scalability, lowering transaction fees, and improving speed. It blasted through numerous milestones in the past few months, while its further development is considered a bullish factor for the price of Shiba Inu.

The asset has entered into green territory as of late, with its value jumping by 9% on a daily scale and 18% monthly. Meanwhile, those interested in learning more about Shibarium, feel free to check our dedicated video below:

Additional Bullish Elements

Shiba Inu’s burn rate increase can also contribute to a SHIB rally. The metric recently exploded by 4,000%, destroying millions of tokens. 

The mechanism’s ultimate goal is to reduce the tremendous circulating supply of the token, making it scarcer and potentially more valuable in time. 

Users on Crypto X are generally quite optimistic about SHIB’s potential price movements. Such an example is the popular analyst Ali Martinez, who recently said that the asset’s price can rise by 20% should it break “the upper boundary of this descending parallel channel at $0.00002444.” Interestingly, SHIB has gone above that level during the recent market revival and now sits at $0.0000248. 

Dami-Defi was even more bullish. In case SHIB breaks out of the recently formed falling wedge pattern on the 1D time frame, its price could surge by 50%.