It shows us you have to be selective in what you pick to earn good returns. So today, we do just that. The scenario. We have $1000. And which do you invest in? Ethereum? Or Chainlink? Let’s check them out.
The Bullish Case for LINK
The case for Chainlink is pretty easy to define. In the most general sense, if smart contracts continue to succeed, then Chainlink will too. And not just smart contracts in general, but the RWA narrative specifically. The NYSE just made a case for using price feeds like Chainlink offers. Their huge glitch in the market caused firms like Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to show as being down 99% last Monday.
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And Chainlink doesn’t only do EVM chains. Even though that is where much of the trading activity is. They just started integrating with Aptos. And they support Solana, Cosmos, and Polkadot as well. They are everywhere your transactions are. It’s a simple question. Do you think that something will need to link all these different blockchains together?
Maybe you call it a messaging layer or something else? But if you want to be able to take the information you learn on Cosmos and use it on Polygon, then you will need something like Chainlink to help you realize that.
The Bullish Case for ETH
Since the ETF was approved, the case for ETH is pretty easy to make, too. First, ETH is likely to be considered a commodity to US regulators instead of a security. That alone is a huge deal in terms of regulatory compliance in the biggest market. Then, 8 ETFs were approved. This means institutions have a chance to access ETH for their investor portfolios.
There is one risk you should be aware of. The ETFs CANNOT stake their ETH. Will that lack of yield prevent some from buying it? It could. positive aftereffects of ETF approval, including trying to front-run the funds, have already started. Balances on exchanges are shrinking.
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Layer 2 activity is growing a ton on ETH. That’s bullish, too. Base could do for COINBASE and for ETH what BNB Smart Chain has done for Binance. It wouldn’t surprise us if that happens. Also, the TVL on Layer 2’s is at an all-time high, too. Now part of that is more L2’s on the market. But still, people would not be building them if they did not think they could attract users and money.
Many argue that Ethereum’s one huge contribution to crypto was during the ICO craze. It lets many new projects come online and raise funds from their communities. This is an especially common argument among Ethereum haters because even they know this is true. But a funny thing is happening in 2024. More new tokens have been created in 2024 than in the entire period from inception in 2015-2023. Yes, many of the tokens are on Base. Yes, that probably means many of them are shitcoins or memecoins.
And you know we don’t advocate for those. But still, this is what a part of the market wants and all of them are still paying ETH for gas. Base users hold Optimism’s $OP for governance issues so it’s bullish for Optimism too.
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Even the Linea hack with the Velocore DEX, and Linea is the Consensys’ own Ethereum L2 like how METAMASK is their native wallet, is not enough to hurt Ethereum right now. Momentum is positive and growing, even if that momentum and growth are slower than Bitcoin or Solana at the moment. What do you use Ethereum or its L2s or ecosystem apps for most often? Let us know in the comments below.
The Decision
We’ve seen the bullish case for LINK. It’s based on:
- Bringing off-chain data on-chain
- Helping the RWA narrative come to fruition
- Allowing blockchains to talk to each other
- The continuing success of smart contracts.
Then you have the bullish case for ETH. It’s based on:
- The positive surprise of the passage of the ETF in the US
- Shrinking exchange balances
- Increasing Layer 2 activity and TVL on L2’s
- More new tokens were minted there than ever before even in the ICO days.
One thing we know with confidence is that both projects will still be here 3-5 years from now. And that’s something most projects today can’t say. These are 2 blue chippers. So, which one do you like the most? Where would you put your $1000? Let us know in the comments.
