Chainlink (LINK) has enjoyed a sharp rally of more than 21% over the past 24 hours. Here's what the data suggests may be behind the rise.

Chainlink surprised the cryptocurrency market with a hack last day

While most crypto sectors saw flat or small green returns over the past 24 hours, Chainlink showed a disconnect as it observed some sharp upward momentum in this window.

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Here's a chart showing what LINK's recent performance looked like:

With this sudden rise, Chainlink reached the $16.7 level for the first time since the collapse during the first half of April. While assets have now recovered much of that decline, they have not yet made a full recovery.

However, if LINK's bullish momentum continues, it may not be long before the cryptocurrency is able to reclaim the $17.8 level it was trading at just before the crash.

As for Chainlink's place in the broader market, the table below shows that based on market cap, it is currently the 15th largest coin.

LINK is not too far behind Polkadot (DOT) now, so it is possible that if prices continue to rise, the coin will unseat DOT and take 14th place on the list.

Now, what is the reason behind Chainlink's sudden disconnect from the rest of the market? Data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment may provide some clues.

The total number of link whales is at its highest level in 6 months now

As Santiment pointed out in A mail On

This cut is equivalent to about $1.67 million at the current LINK exchange rate. Investors with holdings this large are referred to as whales.

Whales can be influential entities in the market because they can move a large amount of volume in a short period of time. As such, their behavior may be worth monitoring.

From the chart, it appears that the total number of whale addresses on Chainlink has reached 564 after the recent surge, the highest level since October last year. This increase in the number of whales on the network may be partly behind the increase LINK has just seen.

In the same chart, the analytics company also attached data for another indicator: social dominance. This metric tells us what share of cryptocurrency-related social media discussions LINK currently holds.

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This indicator rose along with this rally, which means higher interest in the currency. Historically, this spike in interest has been a bearish signal for the asset, so it remains to be seen whether or not these high values ​​will be maintained. “If social dominance subsides and FOMO does not take hold, bullish conditions are coming,” Santiment points out.

Featured image from iStock.com, CoinMarketCap.com, Santiment.net, and chart from TradingView.com