Bitcoin Whales Do $2.2 Billion Selloff, But BTC Stays Strong

Keshav Verma

1 year ago

3 mins read

Reason to trust

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed

The highest standards in reporting and publishing

How Our News is Made

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Ad discliamer

Morbi pretium leo et nisl aliquam mollis. Quisque arcu lorem, ultricies quis pellentesque nec, ullamcorper eu odio.

On-chain data shows Bitcoin whales have sold $2.2 billion worth of BTC in the past week, but price has continued to hold strong so far.

Bitcoin Whales Have Distributed Around 50,000 BTC In Past Week

As pointed out by an analyst in a post on X, the BTC whales have been participating in some selling over the past week. The relevant indicator here is the “Supply Distribution” metric from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, which tells us about the total amount of Bitcoin that the different investor groups are carrying in their combined wallets currently.

In the context of the current discussion, “whale” entities are of interest. These humongous investors are typically defined to be the addresses who carry between 1,000 to 10,000 BTC.

At the current exchange rate of the asset, this range converts to about $43.8 million at the lower end and $438 million at the upper limit. Due to the sheer scale of their holdings, the whales can carry some influence, and therefore, they can be entities worth tracking on the blockchain.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Supply Distribution specifically for these large holders over the past month:

The value of the indicator appears to have plunged in recent days | Source: @ali_charts on X

As displayed in the above graph, the supply held by the Bitcoin whales has been showing a decline in the past week, after remaining stagnant for the preceding few weeks.

Most of the selling had come while BTC was still trading at the recent lows, suggesting that these were whales who had been panicking after BTC had failed its recovery run towards $44,000.

In total, these humongous investors have shed about 50,000 BTC from their combined wallets during this latest selloff, which is worth almost $2.2 billion right now.

Despite this selling, Bitcoin has gone on to hit another local bottom and make a recovery push again, this time actually making a retest of the $44,000 level (although the asset has slumped again since then, as it’s now trading below the mark once more).

Another analyst has also given a whale selling alert in a CryptoQuant Quicktake post, citing the data for the “exchange inflow mean,” which is an indicator that measures the mean amount of Bitcoin that’s being transferred to centralized exchanges.

Looks like the value of the metric has been quite high recently | Source: CryptoQuant

Exchange inflows can be a sign of selling as investors generally use these platforms for this purpose. The mean value of these deposit transactions shooting up naturally implies that large entities like the whales are involved and potentially participating in a selloff.

From the chart, it’s apparent that this metric has seen a couple of spikes in the last two days, suggesting that the whales are still continuing to make moves towards selling.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $43,500, up 3% in the past week.

The price of the coin seems to have gone stale in the last few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Mike Doherty on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com

Keshav Verma

Keshav is currently a senior writer at NewsBTC and has been attached to the website since June 14, 2021.

Keshav has been writing for many years, first as a hobbyist and later as a freelancer. He has experience working in a variety of niches, even fiction at one point, but the cryptocurrency industry has been the longest he has been attached to.

In terms of official educational qualifications, Keshav holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from one of the premier institutes of India, the University of Delhi (DU). He started the degree with an aim of eventually making a career in Physics, but the onset of COVID led to a shift in plans. The virus meant that the college classes had to be delivered in the online-mode and with it came free time for him to explore other passions.

Initially only seeking to make some beer money, Keshav unexpectedly landed clients offering real projects, after which there was no looking back. Writing was something he had always enjoyed and to be able to do it for a living was like a dream come true.

Keshav completed his Physics degree in 2022 and has been focusing on his writing career since, but that doesn’t mean his passion for Physics has ended. He eventually plans to re-enter university to obtain a masters degree in the same field, but perhaps only to satiate his own interest rather than for using it as a means to find employment..

Keshav has found blockchain and its concepts fascinating ever since he started going down the rabbit-hole back in 2020. On-chain analysis in particular has been something he likes to research more about, which is why his NewsBTC pieces tend to involve it in some form.

Being of the science background, Keshav likes if concepts are clear and consistent, so he generally explains the indicators he talks about in a bit of detail so that the readers can perhaps come out having understood and learnt something new.

As for hobbies, Keshav is super into football, anime, and videogames. He enjoys football not only as a watcher, but also as a player. For games, Keshav generally tends towards enjoying singleplayer adventures, with EA FC (formerly FIFA) being the only online game he is active in. Though, perhaps due to being ultra-focused on the game, he is today a semi-pro on the EA FC scene, regularly participating in tournaments and sometimes even taking back prize money.

Because of his enthusiasm for anime and games, he also self-learned Japanese along the way to consume some of the untranslated gems out there. The skill didn’t merely remain as just a hobby, either, as he put it to productive use during his exploration for small-time gigs at the start of COVID, fulfilling a couple of Japanese-to-English translation jobs.

Keshav is also big into fitness, with agility and acceleration-related workouts making a big part of his program due to the relevance they have in football. On top of that, he also has a more traditional strength based program for the gym, which he does to maintain an overall fitness level of his body.

Disclaimer: The information found on NewsBTC is for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.