• Chainlink plunged by up to 19.78 percent after setting an all-time high at $8.99 earlier this month.
• The correction surfaced on profit-taking sentiment among traders – and also as a crypto-focused asset management firm warned about a 99 percent price crash.
• On the other hand, Google Trends showed the trend for the keyword ‘Chainlink’ hitting a perfect 100, showing the coin’s growing popularity as an investment asset.

Chainlink (Ticker: LINK) is up by more than 300 percent on a year-to-date timeframe.

The parabolic upside move mainly picked momentum in early July. Traders increased their bullish bets on LINK’s growing adoption as a DeFi-powering token. The coin earlier this month became part of high-profile blockchain projects, one involving the Chinese government.

On the other hand, traders also moved into LINK and other DeFi-based tokens because of a sluggish Bitcoin. The top cryptocurrency traded inside a $150-200 trading range, offering traders very little space to secure higher short-term gains. DeFi hype provided a way out – and they took it.

Chainlink ATH and Correction

On July 15, LINK established an all-time high at $8.99 on Coinbase. The peak level attracted daytraders to sell their holdings for profits. That ensured a price correction, taking LINK down by as much as 19.78 percent as July 20 in its biggest one-day plunge since June 11.

Chainlink attempts to fight back bears during the Tuesday trading session. Source: TradingView.com

Another reason why LINK fell hard on Monday was Zeus-Capital. The asset management firm in its report called Chainlink project a “vaporware,” stating that its team faked its progress to create a buying hype for its token. Excerpts:

“Behind the shiny facade of the multi-billion dollar project, we have exposed signs of absolute lack of interest in building the technology, team that is incapable of delivering what is currently reflected in token’s market capitalization and a series of market manipulations and plain lies targeting naive investors.”

Zeus-Capital further warned that the LINK/USD exchange rate could fall by as much as 99 percent from its current levels.

Trends Don’t Agree

Despite the warning, LINK traders remain bullish on the token’s long-term bullish prospects. That is further visible in the Google Trend score for the keyword ‘Chainlink.’ As of this week, it was a perfect 100.

The search trend for 'Chainlink' hits 100. Source: Google Trends

Crypto trader Kevin Svenson said the trend will remain higher over LINK’s potential to continue its price rally. He rubbished the recent bearish correction as “a breakdown of the short term structure,” noting that it would result in “a large-scale parabolic trend.”

Mr. Sveson expects LINK to hit $10 in the coming sessions.