Bitwise Asset Management on Wednesday launched the Bitwise Chainlink ETF (NYSE:CLNK), giving investors direct spot exposure to Chainlink's LINK token at a time when tokenization and blockchain-based financial infrastructure are moving from buzzwords to balance sheets.
The ETF began trading with a management fee of 0.34%. Bitwise is waiving fees for the first three months on up to $500 million in assets, a familiar land-grab tactic in the increasingly crowded crypto ETF market.
The timing is notable. While Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have dominated headlines, institutional interest is quietly shifting toward projects that make crypto usable in real-world finance. Chainlink sits squarely in that camp. Its decentralized oracle network allows blockchains to pull in external data, communicate across chains, and interact with traditional financial systems, functions that are essential for tokenized assets, on-chain derivatives, and automated settlement.
That narrative is fitting, as major banks and payment networks accelerate tokenization pilots. Chainlink has partnered with firms including JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Swift, and has been involved in projects tied to cross-border payments and on-chain settlement.
Since launching in 2017, the network has facilitated more than $27 trillion in transaction value across over 70 blockchains, according to Bitwise, with DeFi platforms like Aave and Polymarket relying on it to support more than $100 billion in smart contracts.
The launch also reflects a broader expansion of crypto ETFs beyond single-asset price exposure. As regulatory clarity around digital assets improves and institutions look past price speculation, issuers are rolling out products tied to specific use cases, from staking to infrastructure tokens.
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