USDC (USDC) is 8.3× the size of Chainlink (LINK) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, USDC is ahead by 27.8 percentage points (USDC +0.1% against LINK -27.7%). Their daily returns move barely in opposite directions (correlation -0.17 across 399 shared trading days). LINK has been the more volatile of the two, at 71% annualised against USDC's 0%.
USDCLINK
-0.17over 399 shared trading days
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.
| Metric | USDC | LINK |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -0.3% | -69.2% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 0.05 | 0.47 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +0.2% | +61.6% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -0.2% | -43.6% |
Relative strength over 90 days: LINK outperformed USDC by 26.0% — measured on the USDC/LINK ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.