Bitcoin Whales Almost Reaching All-Time High, But Price Is Low Due To Them Selling

16/06/2020

Bitcoin whales are those whose actions, alone or with others, have the capacity to move the cryptocurrency's market prices.

In mid-June 2020, according to Cointelegraph, the number of whales holding 1,000 BTC or more has never been this high since 2017, which was at an all-time-high when the cryptocurrency's price was ascending to $20,000.

The cryptocurrency analytics site said there are around 1,882 of these whales.

And according to Glassnode’s ‘The Week On-Chain’ report for June 15, the number of Bitcoin whales since January 2020 has been steady growing.

"The price of BTC is now more than 20x higher than it was when we first saw this many whales, implying that more wealth is being held by whales. However, the average balance held by each whale has decreased during this period, such that whales actually hold less BTC now than in 2016, and less wealth (in USD terms) than in 2017."
Number of Bitcoin whales in June 2020

Bitcoin whales tend to be Bitcoin holders. They don't usually move or cash out their digital assets before five years, even when facing a significant market correction.

And every time whales show some activities, they can significantly impact the price of BTC.

While the number of whales are increasing, on June 15, the price of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency dipped below $9,000 for the first time in weeks. This happened as the whales were liquidating $30 million in longs on cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, and sold their reserves at other exchanges.

Since whales rely in liquidity for their investment, whales concern when the volume of the spot market stagnates and futures market activity increases.

And this sudden movement of whales happened because there are not enough buyers in the market when one large whale started selling. As a result, it triggered a series of others in selling their assets.

According to market data, part of the sell off was the movement of the cryptocurrency whales in closing positions which led to panic selling among retail investors.

In doing so, whales are seemingly taking profits after a massive 130% rally over the last three months. With the strategy, they are able to safeguard their holdings, making them also capable of dealing with the relatively low volume in the cryptocurrency market.

On-chain data provider CryptoQuant suggested that the selling may indicate the start of a new bear trend within the market.

Previously and also in June, Bitcoin whales moved 14,000 Bitcoin is just a few hours.

Bitcoin: Gemini reserve in June 2020