According to CoinDesk, Chainlink, the largest blockchain data-oracle project, experienced a strong uptake for its expanded crypto-staking program, attracting over $632 million worth of its LINK tokens. The program reached its limit just six hours after the start of an early-access period. The 'V0.2' community staking mechanism opened for early access from 12 p.m. ET, and within 30 minutes, approximately 32.8 million LINK had been staked. Six hours later, the community pool reached the new, higher capacity of 40.875 million LINK. The price of LINK increased by 12% over the past 24 hours to $16.72.
Overall, the expanded staking pool capacity is 45 million LINK, up from 25 million under v0.1. This figure includes the community pool allocation as well as a separate node operator pool. A Chainlink spokesperson stated that there are currently 1.8 million LINK in the node operator pool, out of a capacity of 4.125 million. Some 21.9 million LINK migrated over from the earlier version of the staking program. Staking is part of what the company calls Economics 2.0, which is designed to help secure the Chainlink system. Chainlink staking allows node operators and community members to support the performance of oracle services with staked LINK, and they can also earn rewards. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said in a press release, 'Staking v0.2 introduces important new security features and sets the system up for even further growth in the year to come.'