Coin Watch: Chainlink and ApeCoin staking programs are about to go live

Two of the crypto market’s most popular projects, Chainlink (LINK) and ApeCoin (APE) are all set to deploy their long-awaited staking programs this week.

And regarding short-term price action on both tokens, this’ll probably mean one of two things. Some not-unreasonable pumpage based on sound fundamental value-adds for investors. Or… a classic sell-the-news slump, a la Ethereum’s Merge, a few months ago.

Yep, could go up, could go down. Sideways is half a chance, too.

A quick check on both LINK and APE at the time of writing, though, and they’re both actually down about 3% over the past 24 hours.

New, improved Chainlink now comes with staking rewards

Chainlink (LINK) – it’s one of the crypto’s most-respected, most widely connected and partnered decentralised protocols. And it’s about to get stakified. Yep, not a word.

We’ll get to that – but first, what the fungible is Chainlink again? It’s an oracle. Okay… so, like Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi? Or Warren “Bitcoin is Rat Poison Squared” Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha?

No.

According to the educational section on the Chainlink site, oracles in the crypto/Web3 sense are: “entities that connect blockchains to external systems, thereby enabling smart contracts to execute based upon inputs and outputs from the real world.”

Simplistic take: you can consider it an extremely clever data-bridging protocol that’s designed to securely connect blockchain-based smart contracts to interact with information and data that exists “off chain” – that is, the sort of “Web2” data sources most of us are used to, such as APIs and commonly used payment networks.

We don’t do Chainlink much justice here by barely scratching the surface and quickly moving on, but for the sake of this article’s purpose, we must do exactly that. Besides, if you’re here you might already know all about it.

So… staking.

LINK staking (essentially a passive source of income for crypto holders who lock up their tokens) is launching on December 6, at midday ET. This rollout is at the heart of the “Chainlink Economics 2.0” upgrade, which will go live on the Ethereum mainnet at the same time.

Benefits? Staking will enable LINK token holders and node operators to earn passive rewards while also helping to maintain the oracle network’s overall cryptoeconomic security.

1/ With Chainlink Staking v0.1 launching on Ethereum mainnet on December 6th, we'd like to provide an update on our iterative approach to building future versions of Staking beyond this initial release and how that will affect important attributes like the lock-up period.

— Chainlink (@chainlink) December 1, 2022

If you’re a LINK holder and are excited to start some sweet passive earning, don’t be disappointed if you can’t immediately tap into it. If you can’t it simply means you’re not one of the Early Access addresses. Actual staking capabilities for the rest of us plebs will be made available a couple of days later.

You can find more details on all of this here.

Is any of this “priced in”? There are plenty of bullish crypto chart watchers out there who believe it isn’t. Such as Michaël van de Poppe, for instance, who has said he sees LINK and other top cryptos entering an “accumulation phase”, predicting a US$9 price for the token in the not-too-distant. It’s currently trading hands for US$7.27.

One thing to note, though, while LINK is down 3% on the daily timeframe, it’s actually been building some momentum over the past fortnight (+23%).

Going APE for passive rewards

Staking for ApeCoin’s APE token, meanwhile, is currently being deployed by the ApeCoin DAO (decentralised autonymous organisation) and is powered by a Horizen Labs-developed smart contract.

It’s set to be completed on December 7, pending any bug reveals, although APE holders can already begin depositing their tokens into the staking protocol.

$APE staking has started and people are starting to deposit their $APE into the pools

In this thread I’ll periodically update the current state of each pool to give insights on rewards/ApeCoin staked as well as rewards if you max staked a #BAYC/#MAYC/#BAKC into the pool

— A Raving Ape 🟡 (@a_raving_ape) December 5, 2022

Please only stick to the official @HorizenLabs and @apecoin twitter pages for information on the $ape staking roll out. There is no need to rush during this pre-deposit period. Triple check links and be sure what you are signing is coming from the legit platforms! Be Safu

— Honorary (@HonoraryApe) December 5, 2022

https://twitter.com/Degentraland/status/1599781371156668416

Rewards are then set to start trickling in a handful of days later, on December 12.

“MESSI” (no, not that one) seems confident…

I sent all my $APE to the staking 🥩 pool and decided to quit my 9-to-5 job. Passive income for the next 3 years baby! Find me in the beach sipping coconuts 😎 $APE to $10 🔵 LFG! pic.twitter.com/s0DhthvDbp

— Sake (@apebayc) December 5, 2022

ApeCoin is the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s governance and utility token that is designed to be used right across that ecosystem for various purposes including giving holders the right to vote on issues such as allocation of funds, framing of rules, partnerships, project selection and more.

APE is also designed to be a currency used within, and possibly beyond (like DogeCoin), the BAYC ecosystem, which includes the developing metaverse known as Otherside.

Like LINK, APE is up about 25% over the past fortnight.

And in related news, Bored Apes and the luxury American-Dutch watchmaker Timex have teamed up to create 500 one-of-one customisable BAYC watches. You can read more about that in the official Timex announcement here, if you so desire.

Don't let your ape's wrist go naked. Reserve yours now. Anyone can mint the pass and secure their right to one of the 500 creations, but only @BoredApeYC and MAYC holders will be able to create their set.

🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/4qaxGNq008

— Timex (@timex) December 2, 2022