Chainlink (LINK) has secured a major strategic partnership with Japan's SBI Holdings, one of the country's largest financial institutions with over $200 billion in assets. The collaboration aims to accelerate institutional digital asset adoption initially in Japan before expanding across the wider Asia-Pacific region.
The partnership will focus on several key applications: tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) such as real estate and government bonds using Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), developing cross-border payment versus payment systems for foreign exchange transactions, and utilizing Chainlink's oracle technology to verify stablecoin reserves onchain. This comes as Japan moves closer to approving its first yen-backed stablecoin.
Chainlink's market performance has been strong, with LINK gaining 38.6% in August despite broader market volatility. On-chain metrics show growing network activity, with New Addresses reaching 2,163 and Active Addresses approaching levels seen during November 2024's major rally. Derivatives markets also show record traction, with Open Interest hitting an all-time high of $875.7 million while funding rates remain modest at 0.0142, indicating healthy demand without excessive leverage.
Technical analysis reveals LINK trading at $25.79, holding above its 9-day and 21-day SMAs with RSI at 64 showing strong but not overextended buying pressure. The Network Value to Transactions Signal (NVTS) sits at levels similar to early November 2024, when LINK rallied from $10.56 to $29.26.