As the halving approaches, large investors are accumulating BTC. The figure had not reached this level since late 2017 when the price of Bitcoin was USD 20,000.
Big Bitcoin investors, known as whales in the community, are accumulating an increasing amount of BTC as the halving of the first cryptocurrency, scheduled to occur in May, approaches.
An analysis by the firm Glassnode indicates that there are currently almost 1,850 entities or operators that have at least 1,000 BTC, which confirms that the whales are in the accumulation phase. The figure had not reached that level since the end of 2017 when Bitcoin had a value of USD 20,000. However, the behavior of large investors at that time was one of capitulation, that is, that of selling or taking the profits.
No one in the ecosystem had seen the current level in the number of whales, in the accumulation phase, since the beginning of 2016, just before the second Bitcoin halving event. The third will occur next May, with a reduction of the reward to miners from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per mined block.
The report highlighted that the behavior of investors to acquire more BTC has not changed, despite the fluctuations that the market has experienced and the collapse that the price of Bitcoin had on March 12th. In this regard, the agency highlighted that the growth in the number of whales, that is, entities with at least 1,000 BTC, increased before last month’s market crash and accelerated during and after the crash.
That growth suggests that the biggest players in the market are accumulating BTC, which sends an optimistic signal. This trend implies that, despite an uncertain market environment, the whales still trust that now is a good time to accumulate BTC.
During the last few days, the movements of the whales could have also had an impact on the increase in the volume of transactions recorded in the week from April 1st to April 8th. Glassnode reported a 23% rise in adjusted transaction volume.
Around a month ago, the price of Bitcoin fell more than 40%, just one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global quarantine. The agency made that decision due to the expansion of the COVID-19, an infectious disease that attacks the respiratory system and can cause death. The health situation has already led to around 100,000 deaths worldwide since scientists have not yet been able to develop a vaccine against the disease.
Under this pandemic scenario, the potential global economic recession, the crisis in the energy market and devaluations of multiple fiat currencies, the volatility of Bitcoin will be evident, according to specialists. The reason why this occurs is that a large group of BTC holders could release their positions to obtain cash in the face of possible contingencies.
At the time of writing this article, the price of BTC was USD 7,050 with a negative variation of 3.64% compared to its price 24 hours ago, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
By Alexander Salazar
