Chainlink price pumps 20% to reach new all-time high

Chainlink (LINK) is not yet a top 10 cryptocurrency by market cap, but at this rate, it soon might.

Chainlink today shot up by close to 20% in price and is currently trading for $5.80, eclipsing its previous all-time high of just under $5 that it hit in March of this year.

LINK is still a relatively new coin, having launched in an ICO in September 2017, which raised more than $30 million. Chainlink sold for a mere $0.09 during its pre-sale, and started off its few months trading at around $0.20 per coin. It has since gained more than 2,460% to its price in less than three years.

In late June, LINK came close to breaking its previous all-time high, but fell short. Today, it’s shattered its record.

While it’s unclear what is driving LINK’s surge in price, it may have something to do with the booming DeFi market, of which Chainlink is an integral part.

DeFi tokens are hotter than ever—and just today total locked value across DeFi protocols broke $2 billion (also an all-time high), according to data from DeFi Pulse. And tokens associated with these protocols have each experienced serious gains as of late as well.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crypto market today is a mixed bag. Bitcoin and Ethereum are down slightly following a big day for ETH yesterday, while Cardano (ADA) is still riding the high of its Shelley launch, up more than 15% on the day.