Bitcoin whales have been increasingly active recently. The number of wallets with at least 100 BTC has reached a 17-month high.
Whales are gobbling up bitcoins
Data provided by the Santiment platform shows that over 280 wallets “swelled” in August to such a level that they managed to exceed the 100 BTC threshold.
The company’s analysts point out that the increase in the number of whales is the result of the fact that the price of bitcoin has been mainly falling over the past month.
There are currently 16,120 wallets with at least 100 BTC. That’s a 17-month record!
During the same period, Santiment reported that wallets holding at least 10 bitcoins (so-called sharks) also increased their holdings.
Overall, the analytics platform estimated that all wallets ranging in value from 10 to 10,000 bitcoins collectively accumulated over 133,000 BTC worth over $7.6 billion in August.
Buy while it’s cheap!
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, also connects the above phenomenon with the fact that the price of bitcoin has fallen from over $62,000 to around $58,000.
Whales are back, buying 450 BTC per day
– he wrote on X.
He pointed out that large investors buy as many BTC per day as are mined.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency analyst and CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler Jr speculated in a Sept. 1 post by X that smaller traders may be feeling the psychological pressure. They sell when the BTC price is often below their entry point. In other words, they get desperate and sell at a loss.
Bitgrow Lab founder Vivek Sen suggests that increased whale activity could be a positive sign for the market.
Last time whales bought heavily, bitcoin reached a new ATH
— he pointed.
The sentiment of smaller investors can be seen when looking at the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index. It is currently in the fear zone (level 26). At the same time, the bitcoin price is at a level of just over $58,000, which means a price drop of about 9% over a 7-day period.
