The latest token release from Chainlink has garnered attention due to a notable transaction involving a trader on the Hyperliquid platform.

Chainlink’s Latest Token Unlock

Of the 19 million LINK unlocked, 14.875 million LINK (worth $212.9 million) were transferred to Binance to increase the exchange’s liquidity. The remaining 4.125 million LINK (worth $56.2 million) were moved to a multi-signature wallet labeled 0xD50. Chainlink has followed this distribution model for years.

Quarterly LINK token unlock by Chainlink. Source: SpotOnChain

Data from SpotOnChain shows that since August 2022, Chainlink has unlocked 176 million LINK, valued at around $2 billion at the time and $2.43 billion at current prices. Of this, 151.3 million LINK were sent directly to Binance at an average price of $11.41.

Despite these transactions, Chainlink still holds 342.5 million LINK, worth $4.7 billion, in non-circulating supply contracts.

Hyperliquid Trader Shifts Focus to LINK

A mysterious trader’s long position on Hyperliquid with LINK. Source: X/Lookonchain

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain identified a prominent whale, known as “ETH 50x Big Guy,” who incurred $4 million in losses from leveraged trades on Hyperliquid.

On March 14th, the whale opened a $31,000 long position on LINK using 10x leverage through Hyperliquid and GMX. Additionally, the whale purchased 863,174 LINK worth $12.1 million USDC.

However, on-chain data reveals that the whale gradually sold off LINK through multiple small transactions to convert into stablecoins just hours after opening the position.

Hyperliquid’s Response

Following the $4 million loss, Hyperliquid announced a risk management update starting March 15th. Specifically, traders will need to maintain a 20% margin ratio on margin trades. This update does not affect cross-margin trading unless cross-margin usage exceeds 5x after opening an isolated position.

Despite these changes, Hyperliquid still permits up to 40x leverage. The update aims to minimize system impact from large positions.

LINK’s Reaction

Despite these events, LINK’s price rebounded over 4% to $13.90 in the past 24 hours, reversing a 12% decline from last week and a 27% drop over the past month.

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