Chainlink price has tanked since Dave Portnoy joined Link Marines

Chainlink has been the hottest cryptocurrency of the year, gaining nearly 1000% to its price since January.

But that meteoric rise came to a screeching halt over the weekend. And, coincidentally, the price of LINK has only continued to tank after Davey Day Trader himself, Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy, endorsed the coin on his day-trading livestream and declared himself a member of the “Link Marines.”

While Chainlink is still up a devilish 666% since the start of 2020, the cryptocurrency has dropped by 30% since Monday, the day Portnoy announced he’d sunk $300,000 into the coin.

“I am a Link Marine, I fuckin’ love it,” he said. “I’m a huge Link Marine. I think I’m $300,000 of one and that thing just rips.”

Eh, not so much anymore. It’s dropped from $20 per coin over the weekend to around $13.80 today.

The Chainlink technicals

Chainlink was obviously going through a hyper-excitement phase earlier this year, breaking past every conceivable technical and psychological trading barrier, day after day. But that, eventually, came at a price.

The market has corrected, and the price of LINK is coming down almost as fast as it went up.

Today's drop broke mild support near $15, and the token is currently fluctuating between this barrier and more robust support at $13.40. If the markets fail to stabilize, the next support could be found just below $12.

The Chainlink fundamentals and market sentiment

Chainlink’s tech, a decentralized data oracle that provides price feeds to a growing list of protocols and applications, has definitely proven itself to be useful over the two years.

What’s more, LINK traders and enthusiasts have managed to self-organize into a token-shilling army, called the Link Marines, stronger and more effective than any paid PR team. And while that may have its advantages, it’s not necessarily sustainable. Just ask the grandaddies of them all, the XRP Army.

Even “El Presidente” and the Portnoy Pump doesn’t appear to be enough to keep inflating that bubble. Portnoy, who has a gigantic following and more than 1.7 followers on Twitter alone, has been known to move markets--and may have even been responsible for giving Bitcoin a bump after releasing his interview with the Bitcoin-loving Winklevoss twins last Thursday.

Portnoy claimed to have dropped $1 million into Bitcoin, but then turned his attention to altcoins, including LINK and Orchid’s OXT.

"Push the shitcoins, push the shitcoins. Just grab a hunk of shit and throw it against the mirror, and watch it drip, go up, down, zigzag-so that's what I did," he said.

But sometimes that shit doesn't stick. OXT is also down 30% since the start of the week.