Browsing through industry news, the information is fragmented but the direction is clear.

A leading compliant platform Institutional team has mentioned "DAT 2.0"—the main themes in 2026 will be privacy, AI, and RWA. Galaxy Research is singing the same tune: tokenized assets, DeFi, and AI will become the engines driving the next phase of infrastructure evolution.

On the data side, there seems to be some division. The total stablecoin market cap remains at a historic high of $309.298 billion, with USDT dominating and taking 60.23% of the share. However, ETF flows are moving out—Bitcoin ETFs have seen outflows of $158.3 million, and Ethereum ETFs outflows of $75.9 million. The money hasn't left the market; it's just choosing different directions. Overall, the market sentiment is cautious, with risk appetite trending downward.

What does this indicate?

Don't be fooled by the phrase "bull market is coming." The real signal is a more painful truth—what will run in the next cycle are not the story-telling applications, but the underlying infrastructure that can truly connect traditional finance systems.

So when talking about Chainlink, there's only one key judgment: this coin isn't sustained by hype; it survives through "integration." When the market is cold and institutional attitudes are more cautious, it's precisely during these times that it becomes easier for its valuation to be reset.

**The true position of Chainlink: not a clone, but a data gateway**

Many in the market still think of oracles as an "old concept." But looking at the recent market buzzwords makes it clear—RWA, tokenized stocks, institutional custody, on-chain asset interaction... All these require one core question to be answered: where does the data come from? How is the data verified? How does the data get onto the chain?

This is the real value of Chainlink. It’s not about fancy technological innovation; it’s the most basic, boring, unavoidable data bridging. As more institutions enter, the demand for data accuracy and trustworthiness becomes more stringent, making the role of oracles even more vital.