Whales are making their move, and on-chain data shows exactly where. According to Santiment, large holders with wallets between 100,000 and 1 million tokens have been steadily accumulating Chainlink (LINK) throughout 2025, signaling renewed confidence in one of crypto’s most established utility projects.
Over the past 12 months, whales have added a total of 40 million LINK to their wallets, a 28% increase in holdings across 103 new addresses. That trend has intensified recently, with 12.9 million LINK bought in the last six months and 8.7 million LINK in the past three. Even in October alone, large investors accumulated 2.8 million LINK, suggesting conviction remains high despite broader market volatility.
Analyst Ali (@ali_charts) noted that whales scooped up 13 million LINK in the past week, describing it as “a clear sign of accumulation” before potential upside. Historically, similar patterns in Chainlink’s whale activity have preceded major price recoveries, particularly during consolidation phases where retail sentiment remains neutral.
🐳🦈 Whales & sharks holding between 100K and 1M $LINK continue accumulating, signaling good signs of things to come for crypto's #12 market cap coin. Accumulation by these wallets are as follows:
🗓️ Past 12 months: 40.0M $LINK accumulated (+28.0% increase, 103 More Addresses)… https://t.co/ncAt5XaJXZ
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) October 22, 2025
Beyond Chainlink: Other Altcoins Gaining Whale Attention
While Chainlink remains the standout, whale positioning across top-performing altcoins hints at a broader rotation toward infrastructure-driven projects. Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI) have both seen rising inflows from large wallets, fueled by expanding developer ecosystems and enterprise blockchain initiatives. Hedera (HBAR), another consistent gainer in Santiment’s development activity rankings, continues to attract institutional attention through partnerships in tokenized assets and payments.
This growing focus on utility and interoperability tokens reflects a clear shift in whale behavior. Rather than chasing speculative hype, major investors are concentrating on assets with long-term network value, the blockchains building the backbone for decentralized finance, tokenized assets, and cross-chain communication.
As Santiment summarized in its report, “consistent accumulation by whales and sharks signals good signs of things to come.” With LINK, AVAX, SUI, and HBAR leading the charge, it appears the smart money has already chosen its next cycle favorites, long before retail traders catch on.