On-chain data shows that Bitcoin whales have continued to shear off their holdings in recent weeks, suggesting that the current lows may not be attractive enough for them.
Bitcoin Whales continue to sell despite recent lows
As noted by an analyst in a CryptoQuant afterthe number of investors with balances in the 1,000 to 10,000 BTC range has continued to decline recently.
The relevant indicator here is the “UTXO Count – Value Bands”, which tells us about the number of UTXOs (or wallets) currently in each Bitcoin value band.
These value bands are groups that define ranges between which lie the balances of UTXOs falling in said bands. For example, the 100-1k BTC value band includes all UTXOs (or wallets) that currently hold between 100 and 1,000 coins.
The value bond of interest in the current context is the “1k-10k BTC” group. Here’s a chart showing how the UTXO count of this value band has changed over the past few months:
Looks like the value of the metric has taken a hit in recent days | Source: CryptoQuant
As you can see in the chart above, the Bitcoin UTXO count for the 1k-10k BTC value band has seen a steep drop over the past month.
Portfolios with such large balances usually belong to the whales. This means that the holdings of these giant holders have declined during this period.
This entire latest drop is due to the crash caused by the collapse of the crypto exchange’s FTX, meaning whales have been selling their coins as prices hit rock bottom.
Historically, whales have exhibited accumulation behavior when bear markets bottomed out. But recently, instead of seeing an increase or even a lateral move, the UTXO count of this whale value band has strangely decreased.
This trend could be a sign that whales still don’t find the current lows attractive enough to buy more, and they may prefer to sell their reserves as they expect bearish winds to continue.
BTC price
At the moment of writing, The price of Bitcoin hovering around $17.2k, up 1% over the past week. Over the past month, the crypto has lost 7% in value.
Below is a chart showing the trend in the coin’s price over the past five days.
The value of the crypto seems to have seen some rise during the past day | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Bitcoin has been stuck in a sideways move around the $17,000 level lately, but at this point it’s unclear when any real volatility may return to the crypto.
Featured image from Thomas Lipke on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com