On-chain data shows that Bitcoin whales have just participated in a large-scale distribution, but the price of the asset has held steady so far.
Bitcoin whales are selling, but sharks are expanding their holdings.
According to data from on-chain analytics firm st tly, large BTC wallets are currently showing an interesting pattern. The indicator of relevance here is “supply distribution,” which tracks the total amount of Bitcoin currently held by various groups of wallets.
Addresses are divided into these groups based on the number of tokens they hold. For example, the 1-10 coin group includes all wallets holding 1-10 BTC.
In the context of the current topic, two groups are of interest: sharks and whales. The former investors are generally defined as those who hold between 100 and 1,000 BTC, while the latter group includes those who hold between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC.
Since both of these cohorts are in great balance, their actions may ultimately have implications for the broader market, making them worth following. The whale is naturally the more powerful of the two because it holds much more mass.
The chart below shows the distribution trends of Bitcoin supply across two large groups of investors over the past few months.
Looks like the two metrics have gone opposite ways recently | Source: Santiment on X
As can be seen in the graph above, Bitcoin whales appear to have shed large amounts of coins from their holdings following the recent rebound in cryptocurrency prices.
In total, these giants distributed approximately 75,500 BTC. While whales appear to have participated in this sell-off, sharks have seen a sharp increase in supply.
This cohort earned 78,100 BTC during this accumulation period. Strangely, the amount the whale sold for was almost the same as the amount the shark bought. This could be due to one of two things:
The first possibility is that the sharks simply purchased these tokens from the hands of the whales. Another, and perhaps more interesting, scenario is that the “sell” is not really a sell, but rather the result of a whale smashing its wallet.
Redistributing these holdings into multiple smaller wallets could naturally lead to the same effects observed in the market. And considering symmetry, this may actually be possible.
So why do whales behave like that? As Santiment explained in a response to a user asking the same question, whales may be moving in and out of exchanges in smaller portions, or they may simply be taking security precautions.
Considering that the Bitcoin price has fluctuated since this trend formed, some selling would still have occurred, but since the BTC price has been relatively managed, the market has not had much trouble absorbing this selling pressure so far. It appears to be. well.
BTC price
Bitcoin fell to the low $60,000s just before, but it appears to have already rebounded as it is now back to $62,400.
The price of the coin has enjoyed a sharp rally over the past few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image by Mike Doherty on Unsplash.com, Santiment.net, chart by TradingView.com