During that period where 'TVL is truth, and airdrops are value,' oracle projects flourished everywhere.
But when liquidity returns to rationality, the question becomes straightforward: who is truly providing fundamental value, and who is willing to pay?
Looking at the current infrastructure landscape, Chainlink is one of the few projects that can provide clear and verifiable financial metrics. It does not rely on a one-time narrative but instead forms a revenue loop based on real usage + multi-chain integration + enterprise-level partnerships.
1. Business Essence: From Oracles to 'Data Infrastructure Network'
In public data (Chainlink official Dashboards, Messari reports, DefiLlama protocol statistics), Chainlink's business has far exceeded traditional price feeds.
As of 2025, publicly verifiable data includes:
Mainstream DeFi protocols have integrated a large number of: Aave, Synthetix, GMX, EigenLayer, etc.
Examples of collaborations with traditional institutions: SWIFT, ANZ Bank, DTCC (Source: Chainlink official news).
On-chain call volume continues to rise: usage trends can be checked on Chainlink's official Dashboard.
Although different sources have different statistical methods, the direction is consistent: the number of integrations continues to expand, data call volume is rising, and enterprise collaboration is increasing.
This determines that the core of Chainlink is not storytelling, but providing 'data utilities'.
2. Revenue and economic model: moving from subsidies to market pricing.
Trends confirmed by public data include:
Chainlink began implementing service fee mechanisms in 2023 (Source: Chainlink Economics 2.0 announcement).
DefiLlama shows Chainlink service fee income increasing year by year (but different modules have different statistical methods).
PoR, Data Streams, and CCIP are all clearly charged products.
Staking system upgrade (Staking v0.2) enhances locked asset scale and penalty mechanisms.
Although different research institutions have different estimates of 'total revenue', it can be confirmed that:
Chainlink is one of the few infrastructure projects with a clear charging model, and fees genuinely flow into the token economy.
This is the core reason it can continue to operate in a bear market and maintain the node ecosystem.
3. Why can't 'oracle clones' be replicated?
This does not rely on emotions, but on structural differences.
1. Enterprise and financial institution-level SLA.
Most on-chain oracle clones only provide 'data feeds'.
Chainlink offers SLA (Service Level Agreement), including:
Downtime compensation.
Data verifiability.
Node auditing.
Compliant data sources.
Multi-chain consistency.
This type of capability requires manpower, compliance, partnerships, and a node ecosystem, and cannot simply be replicated by writing a contract.
2. The scale of the node network and the quality of data sources.
Chainlink's node network is provided by independent institutions, exchanges, and data companies.
Has:
Multi-source aggregation.
Geographical distribution.
Decentralized auditing.
High availability.
Clone nodes are usually fewer, centralized, and rely on a single cloud vendor, resulting in significant reliability gaps.
3. Cross-chain data standardization (CCIP).
Cross-chain is not a bridge, but 'trusted messaging'.
Enterprise-level cross-chain (such as SWIFT POC) has verified:
Information consistency.
Multi-chain transaction assurance.
Massive message routing.
This type of protocol has extremely high entry barriers.
Essentially, Chainlink is not selling 'data', but the credibility of the data.
After the cycle recedes, who can still stand?
Market narratives can rotate, but the value of infrastructure projects comes from 'real usage and cash flow'.
From all publicly available information, Chainlink is:
Number of application integrations.
Cross-chain service demand.
Depth of institutional cooperation.
Charging product system.
All have clear and verifiable growth trends.
So its survival bottom line is actually very clear:
As long as the blockchain world still needs off-chain data, asset proof, and cross-chain messaging, Chainlink will continue to generate revenue.
$LINK is not the most attractive type of asset, but it is a long-term necessity for Web3.
