A trusted middleware standard is already embedded across crypto, but the upside depends on making payments and buy-pressure legible and recurring as tokenization scales.

Chainlink’s non-linear upside is a monetization inflection: turning “integrated everywhere” into “paid everywhere” as cross-chain settlement, tokenization workflows, and AI-agent execution standardize on LINK-secured trust services (with visible, recurring LINK demand via unified fee routing + the Reserve).

In an AI-heavy economy, “trust + coordination rails” get more valuable; Chainlink is a candidate standard for verified data, attestations, and cross-chain execution.

LINK’s base usage moat is already real (default trust layer across chains), but the market continues to discount opaque monetization. The bull path is not “more integrations,” it’s “more billable surface area” + “more visible LINK buy-pressure” as cross-chain settlement becomes standard plumbing for tokenized assets and multi-chain apps. If Chainlink keeps leading on security assurances (operator quality, staking-secured guarantees, enterprise certifications) while making payments/fee routing simpler (pay any asset → convert → route in LINK), revenue can scale non-linearly with tokenization and agent-driven onchain activity.

The key risk isn’t relevance (Chainlink is widely relied on), it’s scaling secure value capture: making LINK-denominated demand durable while avoiding a major cross-chain/bridge-style incident and defending share vs faster/cheaper competitors.

Thesis is directionally unchanged; evidence has improved that monetization can become more visible via Reserve accumulation and SVR reporting.

More confidence in sustained value capture due to observable Reserve growth and continued CCIP adoption signals.

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