Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Whales have been offloading their BTC this month after a sustained period of accumulation.
According to a new report from crypto market data aggregator, Glassnode, Bitcoin whales offloaded massive amounts of BTC during February.
Glassnode defines any address that holds between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC as a “whale”, while “humpback whales” hold more than 10,000 BTC. The report found that the number of whales increased by more than 14% in the year to Feb. 5, 2021.
Whales and humpbacks' buying spree peaked in January as they snapped up 80,000 BTC, worth $3.84 billion at today’s prices.
But since February, whales and humpbacks appear to have taken heavy profits, offloading 140,000 BTC — equal to $6.72 billion since the start of the month.
The data shows an inverse-correlation between the trading activities of whales to smaller, but still very wealthy investors. Glassnode noted that “dolphins” and “sharks” — wallets that hold between 100 BTC and 1,000 BTC — shed 95,000 BTC worth $4.56 billion in January, but flipped bullish in February, collectively accumulating 117,000 Bitcoin ($5.61 billion) since the start of the month:
“Important to note is how the supply changes for the Dolphin/Shark class (purple) and Whale/Humpback class (green) are mirrored in volume and shape. Where one class sees increasing volume, the other sees decreasing volume (and vice-versa).”
“Octopus” and “Fish” — wallets that hold between 10 BTC and 100 BTC — have been consistently offloading their holdings since November 2020, selling more than 128,000 Bitcoin or $6.14 billion in less than four months.
The 20% BTC price crash this week sparked a lot of action for the whales and was front run by one clever whale who managed to cash out $156 million before the dip began on Monday.
Fears of a further down-trend may not eventuate as new research from trading platform CrossTower argues that institutional buying will hold BTC above $50,000 in the long term.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.