Why is Chainlink down today?

Chainlink is down 6.2% over 24 hours to $12.13, underperforming Bitcoin's 2.8% decline — a typical high-beta move rather than a LINK-specific story. The selloff started with macro: September CPI came in at 3.7%, above forecasts, pushing Treasury yields higher, putting a Fed hike back on the table and dragging crypto lower alongside stocks.

Leverage did the rest. Bitcoin's drop below $81,000 triggered roughly $485 million in liquidations, and Coinglass data shows $942.1 million wiped out across crypto in 24 hours, with longs accounting for $863.3 million, or 91.6% of the total. Forced selling of that scale hits mid-caps like LINK, now at a $9.3 billion market cap, harder than Bitcoin.

The fundamental news flow was actually positive and failed to offset the macro pressure: Chainlink's data services went live on Stellar on October 14, extending its oracle infrastructure to a network hosting more than $4 billion in tokenized real-world assets. LINK is up 1.5% in the past hour as the market stabilizes.