with blockchain data pointing to renewed selling pressure by whales large investors with the ability to influence markets.
The number of whale entities clusters of BTC wallet addresses held by a single network participant holding at least 1,000 bitcoins BTC, -5.37% fell to a 5.5-month low of 943 on Monday, according to data provided by Glassnode.
The metric has dropped by 3%, in the past five days, extending the decline from a record high of 2,237 BTC on Feb. 7. Whale selling pressure had eased off in the second half of April.
"The data looks bearish, as it shows a clear trendline of whales offloading their BTC holdings," said Pankaj Balani, co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Delta Exchange.
From October 2020 to February 2021, the number of whale entities had risen in lockstep with bitcoin's price, validating the narrative that the price rally over that period was the product of increased participation by large investors.
Hence, the divergence between the two metrics is a cause for concern for the BTC bulls.
Bitcoin's price has been generally restricted to the price of $50,000 to $60,000 range since mid-March amid continued selling by BTC whales. In other words, retail investors alone have been struggling to drive the price rally.
Recent market-wide BTC price action suggests investor focus has shifted from bitcoin to ether (ETH, -4.61%) and altcoins.
While Ethereum price has more than doubled to record highs above $4,100 in the past two weeks, bitcoin has remained comatose below price of $60,000 and looks vulnerable to a deeper drop unless whales resume buying.
Balani predicted a notable price correction below $50,000 in the short term. "Monday's move was quite confirmatory of the impending drop," he said.
Bitcoin price fell by over 5% to $53,500 on Monday, putting brakes on the rally in ether and other altcoin. Ether closed Monday on a flat note at $3,950.
Cardano price rewards pattern savvy speculators
Dogecoin allowing customers to earn interest on their holdings
0 Comments