Link jumped 3.6% to $16.96 on strong institutional buying near key support. Stellar joins Chainlink Scale to integrate CCIP, data feeds, and data streams. Stellar reported $5.4 billion in RWA volume in Q3 2025 and a 700% increase in smart contract activity.
On Friday, Chainlink’s native token LINK rebounded 3.6%, rising to $16.96 as institutional investors stepped near a key support level.
This recovery followed strong trading volume during the morning breakout with over 3 million tokens exchanged.
More importantly, payments-focused blockchain Stellar announced significant integration with Chainlink’s suite of services, including Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), data feeds, and data streams.
The partnership demonstrates the growing institutional demand for secure financial infrastructure, and both networks are positioned to capitalize on the growing real-world asset tokenization market, which analysts predict will reach $2 trillion by 2028.
Stellar’s strategic commitment to RWA and DeFi
Stellar’s decision to join the Chainlink Scale program marks an important strategic move for the payments-focused blockchain.
This integration will give Stellar developers and institutions access to a battle-tested infrastructure that currently secures over $100 billion in total value locked across DeFi protocols.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Stellar reported impressive growth metrics in Q3 2025, with real-world asset transaction volume reaching $5.4 billion.
The network also saw a 700% quarterly increase in smart contract calls and welcomed a 37% increase in full-time developers.
These metrics reflect a growing ecosystem seeking institutional-grade tools to bridge traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure.
Chainlink’s CCIP integration allows Stellar developers to move assets between blockchains without rewriting smart contracts. This streamlines complex operations such as cross-chain lending and yield farming into a single atomic process.
Data feeds and data streams complement this by providing real-time and reliable price information. This is essential for DeFi protocols that handle significant capital flows.
Standard Chartered’s Jeffrey Kendrick recently predicted a $2 trillion DeFi tokenization boom by 2028, driven by a surge in demand for tokenized stocks, funds, and stablecoin-based money market products.
By adopting Chainlink, Stellar is positioned to squarely capture a share of this trend, especially as Wall Street financial institutions increase their exploration of tokenized assets.
What this means for LINK’s technical picture
A 3.6% rally took LINK above a key technical level, but weakness during US trading hours pushed the token below the $17 mark.
Traders currently note support at $16.37, with near-term upside targets at $17.46 and $18.00.
Technical analysts suggest that LINK is emerging from an oversold situation.
The Relative Strength Index has recently been hovering at levels that indicate weakening bearish momentum, while the Bollinger Bands have placed LINK near the lower band, which signals a possible reversal.
A 78% volume spike during the breakout confirmed institutional participation, but short-term rebalancing led to some profit-taking.
Broadly speaking, cryptocurrency analysts expect LINK to trade between $16.77 and $18.79 in November 2025, with the potential for a rally toward $20 to $25 if buyers maintain momentum above key resistance levels.
Stellar’s integration shows that adoption of Chainlink technology by enterprises remains strong despite recent price weakness.
Whether LINK extends the pullback will largely depend on broader crypto market sentiment and continued institutional buying appetite around the current support zone.
