The US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved two spot ETFs on Chainlink. Bitwise started trading today on NYSE Arca, after Grayscale launched the first LINK ETF in December 2025. Both asset managers are expanding the range of regulated crypto products beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitwise Asset Management commenced trading under the ticker CLNK, earlier than originally planned. The company filed Form 8-A with the SEC on January 5 and received approval for the NYSE Arca listing. The launch originally announced for February 1 occurred ahead of schedule. Grayscale converted its existing Chainlink Trust into an ETF that has been trading under the ticker GLNK since December 2, 2025. GLNK recorded inflows of $64 million within the first 48 hours.
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Fee models and custody structure
Bitwise waives management fees entirely for the first three months, as long as AUM remains below $500 million. After that, the annual fee is 0.34 percent. Grayscale also charges no fees for the first three months or until fund assets reach $1 billion. The regular fee is 0.35 percent annually.
Coinbase Custody Trust Company holds the LINK tokens for both ETFs. BNY Mellon handles cash custody for Bitwise. The institutional infrastructure meets the standards already established for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Bitwise mentions staking as a secondary investment objective in the filings. Attestant Ltd is listed as a potential staking agent, but no details on implementation are known. Grayscale integrated a staking component into its ETF that could generate additional returns once regulatory conditions permit. The staking rewards would be managed by third-party providers, while the assets remain in custody wallets.
Market position and institutional acceptance
Chainlink has a market capitalization of $9.6 billion with a circulating supply of 708 million LINK tokens. This represents 71 percent of the maximum supply of 1 billion tokens. LINK trades at $13.61.
LINK established itself as the third most important asset in crypto ETFs after Bitcoin and Ethereum. The oracle network secures 69 percent of the oracle market and 84 percent of the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) manages over $2.2 billion in cross-chain value.
Institutional partnerships with UBS, SWIFT, DTCC and Euroclear position Chainlink as central infrastructure for tokenized assets. Industry forecasts estimate the market for tokenized assets at $16 trillion by 2030. Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) went live in 2025 and enables institutional smart contracts with native compliance and privacy.
"Chainlink is the only oracle platform with significant institutional adoption and ISO 27001 certification" - Chainlink Labs
Chainlink in the altcoin ETF competition
With the two LINK ETFs, Chainlink joins a growing list of regulated altcoin products. Following approval of the first Bitcoin spot ETFs in January 2024, Ethereum ETFs followed in July of the same year. Solana and XRP ETFs received green light from the SEC in late 2025.
The Chainlink ETFs differ from other altcoin products through their clear institutional use case. While Solana and XRP are primarily positioned as transaction networks, Chainlink delivers infrastructure for existing financial institutions. SWIFT uses the CCIP protocol for interbank messaging, DTCC is testing Chainlink for settlement of tokenized securities.
Outlook for institutional investors
The fee structure of both ETFs targets rapid growth in AUM. The three-month zero-fee phase allows institutional investors a cost-effective entry. Grayscale's GLNK demonstrated existing demand with $64 million in 48 hours.
For investors, the ETFs offer regulated access to oracle infrastructure for the first time. Chainlink's 69 percent market share in the oracle sector makes LINK the de facto standard for on-chain data feeds. Integration into traditional financial infrastructure could attract further institutional interest as tokenized assets gain importance.
