Investors may be overlooking one of the most important parts of crypto infrastructure, according to crypto asset management company Bitwise.
chain link $LINK$12.18is the 11th largest crypto asset with a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion and one of Bitwise's highest-conviction investments. However, it is rarely mentioned in mainstream crypto conversations, and the company blames this disconnect on the complexity of the asset rather than weak fundamentals.
“I think this is one of the least understood, most important, and perhaps most undervalued cryptoassets,” Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hogan said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Chainlink is typically described as middleware that provides real-world data, such as asset prices and event results, to blockchains. Hogan said the framing was not wrong, but it was very incomplete. He argued that calling Chainlink a data oracle is like calling Amazon a bookstore.
Chainlink was founded by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis in 2017 as a decentralized network for connecting smart contracts to real-world data. By allowing blockchain applications to securely access off-chain information ranging from asset prices to external events, it has established itself as the core infrastructure layer that bridges blockchain and external systems.
Hogan said Chainlink provides the connective tissue that allows blockchains, which are independent systems, to interact with markets, institutions, and each other. Without this connection, these networks resemble powerful but offline spreadsheets, capable of complex calculations but without access to the information needed to function in real-world financial systems.
Hogan says the investment case becomes clearer when viewed through an institutional lens. The stablecoin relies on Chainlink for price feeds, proof of reserves, and cross-chain transfers. Tokenized stocks and bonds rely on this for pricing, compliance, and settlement logic. Decentralized finance applications, prediction markets, and on-chain derivatives cannot function without trusted external data.
As a result, Chainlink has quietly become part of both cryptocurrency-native and traditional financial institutions. The report points to adoption by organizations such as SWIFT, DTCC, JPMorgan, Visa, Mastercard, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Euroclear, and Deutsche Börse.
“For investors who are bullish on stablecoins, tokenization, DeFi, or real-world crypto adoption, Chainlink is at the center of it all,” Hogan said.
Bitwise launched its Chainlink exchange-traded product (ETP) last week.
$LINK At the time of publication, the stock was down 3.2% at $12.15.
Read more: Chainlink expands data streams to cover multi-trillion dollar US stock market
