Chainlink is in the spotlight after Coinbase selected it as the official oracle infrastructure for tokenized stocks on its Base layer-2 network. The news pushed LINK to $12.06, a 12.03% gain in 24 hours, with trading volume near $1.04 billion and a market cap of approximately $9.03 billion. Blockchain versions of Apple and NVIDIA shares will use Chainlink price feeds to function in decentralized finance protocols, enabling lending, borrowing, and trading of major publicly traded U.S. stocks onchain.
Tokenized shares on Base use a B20 token standard, an extension of ERC-20, and are regulated by Alpaca with bankruptcy-remote structuring. Users outside the U.S. can hold fractional shares, trade them on Aerodrome, or use them as collateral on Aave. Coinbase received regulatory approval from Abu Dhabi’s FSRA on August 11 to operate its global tokenization hub, and verified holders receive dividends and voting rights. The tokenized stock market has grown from a market cap of $329 million in June 2025 to roughly $1.7 billion in June 2026, while monthly on-chain transfer volume rose from $53 million to $9.22 billion.
Institutional and analyst interest is also building. The Bitwise Chainlink ETF bought 727,170 LINK tokens over one week at an average price of $7.585, including a latest purchase of 163,379 LINK worth about $1.85 million. Those holdings now carry unrealized gains above 50%. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe said LINK is in a bull market and trending upward against Bitcoin, while Rand Group analysts are watching $12.50 as key resistance, with potential targets of $20 and $28 if momentum continues. Chainlink's inclusion in Robinhood Chain at its July launch further underscores its role as standard infrastructure for tokenized equity platforms.
