Cody McGrath 
Chainlink (LINK) had a stellar performance this week when it soars 30% after plans for staking support and a major Avalanche integration increased demand.
In the last 24 hours, LINK has risen 7.9% to $9.15, its highest level in a month.
The rise in LINK began on Tuesday when the blockchain announced plans to facilitate staking through LINK.
It was strengthened even further on Thursday after the Avalanche blockchain deployed more Chainlink services to its primary network.
Chainlink is one of the largest providers of decentralized network oracle services. It is used to integrate price feeds into smart contracts.
LINK surges amid this Avalanche integration
The Avalanche blockchain increased its integration with Chainlink, which fueled LINK’s sharp surge over the last 24 hours.
Keepers and Variable Random Functions (VRF), two Chainlink features, were implemented on the Avalanche main network on Thursday.
The new features are intended to provide developers with better uptime guarantees and smart contract security. About a year ago, Chainlink price feeds were natively integrated into Avalanche.
Chainlink collects more user service fees as it expands its deployment across several blockchains. This makes LINK look more appealing, particularly in light of plans to incentivize staking.
Staking will be backed by Chainlink 2.0
As the first step in a much larger upgrade, Chainlink will incentivize staking through LINK. The blockchain plans to increase the security around its oracle networks while also incorporating more community participation.
A bulk of this improvement will be focused on generating sustainable benefits for long term users. Emission fees and user service fees will be used by the blockchain to compensate LINK stakers.
LINK instantly surged 12% after the announcement and has been on an uptrend since then. Despite broader market declines, it is the best-performing top-30 cryptocurrency this week.
The possibility of staking rewards prompted a spike in whale purchases in LINK, pushing prices further higher. LINK is one of the most-traded tokens by major Ethereum whales this week, according to data from Whalestats.