After President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on imports from China, the market plummeted, wiping out nearly $19 billion in crypto liquidations within a day. However, while traders panicked, crypto whales were seen buying.
On-chain data shows that large investors have added exposure across three altcoins, indicating confidence that this decline is sentiment-driven rather than structural. Here, let’s take a look at what the whales are buying and why these tokens could lead to the next rebound.
chain link (link)
President Donald Trump’s 100% tariffs on China triggered the sharpest overall market decline in months. While most altcoins are collapsing under pressure, Chainlink (LINK) has extracted quiet accumulation from large holders, and the data backs it up.
Sponsored Sponsored
According to Nansen, the position of whale wallets holding more than 100,000 LINKs increased by 22.45%, bringing the total holdings to 4.16 million LINKs. This means that the whale has added approximately 760,000 LINK, which is equivalent to approximately $13.7 million at current LINK prices.
The top 100 addresses also increased their balances by 0.14%, bringing their total hidden assets to 646.48 million LINKs, a net increase of approximately 900,000 LINKs or $16.3 million.
That accumulation was not random. According to Nansen’s data, smart money wallets rose 1.51% (expecting a rebound) and celebrity wallets rose 1.97%. On the other hand, the exchange balance increased by 5.85%, meaning that individual traders are likely selling.
Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.
This move is in line with Chainlink’s strong fundamentals. During the crash, Chainlink’s oracles provided real-time price data, which reportedly enabled Aave to process over $180 million in liquidations without downtime.
The network’s reliability under stress may have strengthened Whale’s belief in LINK’s DeFi role.
Technically, LINK is trading within a symmetric consolidation channel, indicating price tightening ahead of a potential breakout.
Sponsored Sponsored
A bullish RSI divergence is forming on the two-day chart. While the price hit a low near $7.90, the RSI hit an even higher low, suggesting a reversal of fortunes or at least a rebound.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) measures the strength of buying or selling pressure on a scale of 0 to 100 and helps identify when an asset is overbought or oversold.
At the time of writing, LINK is trading around $17.70, just below the $18.40 resistance. A break above $21.30 could pave the way to $24.90, and a two-day close above $27.90 could lead to $35.50.
However, if the two-day candlestick closes below $16.40, we can expect the bears to gain the upper hand.
Uniswap (UNI)
While the overall market absorbed the tariff shock, Uniswap (UNI) saw a quiet accumulation of whales. The balance of wallets holding large amounts of UNI increased from 690.1 million to 690.76 million, an addition of approximately 660,000 UNI, equivalent to approximately $4 million at current UNI prices.
Sponsored Sponsored
The move comes after Uniswap processed nearly $9 billion in daily trade volume, the highest in recent months, without any downtime or network stress, a sign of DeFi’s stability amid extreme volatility.
Price charts confirm the crypto whale conviction. UNI trades within an ascending triangle, a bullish continuation structure characterized by higher lows and flat upside resistance.
The recent selloff has produced a long wick, but buyers managed to bring the two-day candlestick back within the trendline and maintain the pattern.
If UNI breaks above $6.70, the setup has room to move towards $8.00 and $9.60. For now, the price structure and whale position taken together suggest that the bullish bias remains intact despite a broader correction. If a 2-day candlestick closes below $5.80, it will be void.
Sponsored Sponsored
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Among the top meme coins, Dogecoin (DOGE) stood out during the tariff-induced crash. Notably, despite dropping nearly 23% in the past 24 hours, DOGE has seen one of the most aggressive whale accumulations in the entire market. This is a clear sign of conviction in panic.
According to on-chain data, the balance of wallets with more than 1 billion DOGE increased from 71.22 billion to 72.04 billion, adding about 820 million DOGE during the decline.
At current DOGE prices, the new accumulation by the giant crypto whale is worth about $156 million.
Technically, Dogecoin is trading around $0.19, rebounding from the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement zone near $0.20. A sustained move above $0.20 could open the door to the important 0.618 Fibonacci level at $0.22. This could be followed by $0.26 and $0.30. However, if the daily closing price falls below $0.17, this rebound setting will be disabled.
Underscoring the bullish outlook, the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), which measures the inflows and outflows of funds from large wallets, remained consistently above zero during the crash.
This shows that even though the market corrected, there was still strong buying pressure.
Meanwhile, the Bull Bear Power (BBP) indicator, which tracks the balance of buyer and seller strength, shows a red bearish bar steadily narrowing. The decline in bearish strength suggests that the selling momentum is waning, coinciding with the CMF rebound.
