Chainlink’s $64M Grayscale ETF debut hides private banking loophole threatening to sever link between usage and price

Grayscale launched the GLNK ETF, the first US product offering direct exposure to Chainlink's oracle infrastructure, attracting $64 million in initial assets. While this launch signals institutional interest in tokenization, it exposes a critical disconnect: the growth in Chainlink's usage via protocols like CCIP may not necessitate an increase in the LINK token's price. Sophisticated allocators worry about the "velocity problem," where institutions use the infrastructure but pay fees in fiat or immediately burn the token, suppressing demand. Furthermore, proprietary bank solutions could bypass public middleware entirely. The ETF structure, physically backed under NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E, solves access issues for RIAs but strips away LINK's native staking yield, creating a performance drag that requires significant capital appreciation to overcome. Early flows favor infrastructure plays over meme tokens, suggesting a base-case AUM projection of $150M to $300M by mid-2026, contingent on major institutions moving from pilots to commercial use of the LINK token.

(Source：CryptoSlate)