Not too long ago, Live Bitcoin News reported that Chainlink (LINK) was on a roll and had ultimately experienced a hefty surge in its price. Now, the currency has jumped even further, and has overtaken bitcoin cash to become the world’s number five cryptocurrency by market cap.

Chainlink Is On a Serious Roll

Over the last week, the price of LINK has jumped by more than 80 percent. It has added roughly 120 percent to its price since the beginning of the month and has shot up by more than 600 percent since the beginning of the year. Its total market cap now equals roughly $6 billion, and it has overtaken bitcoin cash to fall into the top five. Thus far, the currency appears unbeatable.

In an interview, Quantum Economics analyst Thomas Kuhn explained the situation surrounding the one-time obscure altcoin:

It’s been pretty wild… With tech stocks at all-time highs and without yield to be found, I think that we are seeing renewed institutional interest in digital assets, especially in those trading higher when bitcoin is weak or down on the day. These have been DeFi assets.

While bitcoin has been going rather strong over the past few weeks, the currency has experienced small drops here and there that have allegedly put a temporary stop to its previous bull run. At the time of writing, bitcoin – the world’s number one cryptocurrency by market cap – is trading for about $11,500, which is about $200 higher than where it stood at the beginning of the week.

This might all seem fine and dandy, except not too long ago, the currency was trading for over $11,900 and appeared to be on the verge of moving beyond the $12K mark. Thus, when one considers the circumstances, bitcoin has hit something of a snag in the road.

That could be why traders are beginning to focus their attention on separate altcoins such as Chainlink, which is presently trading for just shy of $17 per unit. In addition, the surge in LINK is also likely being pushed by the sudden jump in interest surrounding decentralized finance or DeFi, which is a space devoted to establishing tools that redo how standard financial products are doled out.

With DeFi Growing, LINK Is Bound to Follow

LINK falls into this category, and it makes sense that with DeFi’s popularity going up, LINK’s popularity would soon follow. Kuhn states:

On the micro level, the asset has an incredible community, born in 4chan meme culture. A major aspect of pricing in LINK is the question of whether it will be used as an escrow asset for smart contracts. If it is, large values would be needed to be held in escrow for contract execution which would reduce velocity as well as act as an upward price pressure.

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