Despite market struggles, Bitcoin whales have shown resilience in their accumulation and retention of BTC holdings. Cryptoquant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju disclosed that new whales garnered over 1.45 million BTC coins this year.
Also, new wallets with over 1,000 BTC, including spot ETFs and custodial wallets, cumulatively hold about 1.8M Bitcoin. Amid this trend, Young Ju also noted that OTC markets have surpassed CEX markets, suggesting an increase in institutional interest.
New Bitcoin Whales Amass More Tokens This Year
The leading crypto asset, Bitcoin, has recorded significant market fluctuations within the past few days. Notably, some old BTC wallets saw a decline in holding amid the recent massive sell-offs from the German government.
The CEO and founder of CryptoQuant took to X to reveal the performance of new Bitcoin wallets so far this year. He pointed out the dominance of Bitcoin’s over-the-counter markets over those of centralized exchanges.
#Bitcoin OTC markets are overwhelming CEX markets.
Whale wallets (>1K BTC), including spot ETFs and custodial wallets, added 1.45M BTC this year, totaling 1.8M BTC.
In 2021, about 70K BTC flowed in over the year; now, it’s 100K BTC “weekly.” I repeat. 100K BTC weekly. pic.twitter.com/YJPJpMtMPL
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) July 17, 2024
Further, Young Ju noted that Bitcoin whale wallets, holding more than 1,000 BTC, have accumulated over 1.45 million BTC tokens this year.
According to the executive, these whales include those of spot ETF and custodial wallet addresses. Moreover, the whales currently hold 1.8 million BTC tokens, representing 9% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply.
The CEO stated: “OTC markets are overwhelming CEX markets. Whale wallets ( 1K BTC), including spot ETFs and custodial wallets, added 1.45M BTC this year, totalling 1.8M BTC.”
Moreover, Ju noted that the increase in the BTC holdings in new whales’ wallets is not a shift from the old news.
This is not internal shuffling from existing custodial wallets.
The balance of old whale wallets(>155d) hasn’t decreased, while the balance of new whale wallets(155d) has increased. pic.twitter.com/FnIbP1bd2H
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) July 17, 2024
According to the CEO, the balance of old BTC wallets (greater than 155 days) has not decreased. Meanwhile, new BTC wallets (less than 155 days) recorded a surge in their holdings. Ju believes this growth reflects increased institutional adoption.
In addition, the CEO highlighted the difference in the whales’ accumulation rate in the past and recently. According to him, the whales maintained an inflow of 70,000 BTC in 2021.
However, he stressed that whales now amass approximately 100,000 BTC tokens weekly. The executive also explored the trend in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows, which cumulatively hit 16,800 BTC last week. He believed that the other BTC inflows came via OTC markets.
16.8K BTC inflow into the spot ETFs last week. Even when considering the outflowed ETFs as well as the inflow, it is still a small amount. The outflow from GBTC last week was only 0.7K. So it’s 17% in total. I don’t know where the rest of the BTC is from. Highly likely OTC, imo.
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) July 17, 2024
BTC Market Outlook
Bitcoin witnessed a price strain following the German government’s sales of 49,858 BTC tokens seized from the movie2k case.
Following this sell-off, Bitcoin’s price dipped below the $60,000 region, sparking fear among market participants. However, Bitcoin has recovered significantly over the past few days, robbing off on most crypto assets.
trades at $65,748. It recorded a 3.01% increase over the past 24 hours, and its market cap is 1.29 trillion.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not constitute financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research and determine their own risk tolerance before making any financial decisions. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile, high-risk asset class.
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