Bitcoin started 2024 with a massive gain of over 73% in the first quarter of the year, reaching a new record price of $73,750. And while BTC quickly fell from this value after a turbulent price move over the past month, major stakeholders have shown a consistent accumulation trend through the first three months of 2024, indicating high confidence in the asset’s profitability in the run-up to the next halving.
Bitcoin Whales Acquire $21.6 Billion BTC, Expanding Market Dominance by 1.4% as Halving Approaches
In an X-post on Friday, blockchain analytics platform Santiment shared that Bitcoin whales are still heading in the “right direction” regarding their accumulation pattern. Santiment reported that these whales, which represent holders of 100-100,000 BTC, have purchased a total of 319,310 BTC (worth $21.6 billion) in the past three months.
This report also stated that a significant portion of the newly acquired tokens came from retail traders, i.e. holders of 0-100 BTC, who collectively sold 105,260 BTC, worth $7.2 billion and 0.7% of the circulating supply of BTC, within the same time frame. .
🐳↗️ #Bitcoin‘s key stakeholders with 100-100K $BTC have COLLECTED a collective 319,310 $BTC (approximately 1.4% of the supply) in the past 3 months. Many of these coins came from 0-100 $BTC wallets, of which 105,260 have been dumped $BTC (-0.7% of supply) in 3 months. https://t.co/6KKFgZzrPz… pic.twitter.com/kXyQrOIRGA
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 5, 2024
Overall, BTC whales have increased their market share by 1.4% over the past three months, which is interpreted as a rather positive sign ahead of the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving on April 19. For context, the Bitcoin halving, which takes place every four years, is a network-programmed event where the number of miner rewards on the Bitcoin blockchain is reduced by half.
In general, Bitcoin’s halving is considered a positive event that results in asset scarcity, increasing demand and market price in the long term. This idea may well remain true, as Santiment describes the increased accumulation of BTC whales in the final weeks before the next halving as a bullish signal, indicating high confidence in the asset’s future valuation.
BTC price overview
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is currently trading at $67,521, reflecting a decline of 0.01% and 3.51% in the past day and seven days, respectively. At the same time, the digital coin’s daily trading volume has also fallen by 6.80% and is valued at $32.35 million.
However, BTC is up 6.43% on the monthly chart, contributing to an impressive 140.65% increase since the beginning of the year. With a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, the first cryptocurrency remains the largest digital asset in the world.
BTC trading at $67,504 on the daily chart | Source: BTCUSDT chart on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Watcher Guru, chart from Tradingview
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