On-chain data shows the Bitcoin whales are selling at their fastest monthly rate of the cycle, a potential reason behind the asset’s latest decline.
In a new post on X, CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno has listed a contributing factor behind the recent plunge in the Bitcoin price. The factor in question is the trend in the holdings of the whales.
Whales are defined as BTC investors carrying more than 1,000 tokens of the cryptocurrency in their wallet balance. At the current exchange rate, this cutoff converts to about $112.8 million. Thus, the only holders qualifying for the group would be those with a substantial amount of capital.
Exchanges and mining pool wallets may technically fulfill this requirement, but they are excluded from the group because they aren’t considered “normal” network participants.
Given that the whales include some of the most influential investors in the market, their behavior can be something to keep an eye on, as it may sometimes have a direct impact on the asset’s trajectory. Even when it doesn’t, it can still be revealing about the sentiment among these humongous holders.
One way to gauge whale behavior is through their total supply. Below is the chart shared by Moreno that shows how this metric has changed over the past year.
As displayed in the graph, the Bitcoin whale supply saw a huge drawdown last month, indicating that the large holders participated in some significant net distribution.
The metric made some slight recovery as BTC’s spot price surged above $117,000, but the trend has quickly flipped during the last few days as the indicator has registered another sharp plunge.
Since August 21st, whales have sold a net total of 147,000 BTC, worth a whopping $16.6 billion. This selloff has taken the 30-day change in the cohort’s supply to the largest negative value of the cycle so far.
Considering the timing of the selling, it’s possible that this is one of the reasons why Bitcoin has faced bearish price action recently. The market selloff may not be over yet, either, if the trend in the Exchange Inflow is anything to go by. As the CryptoQuant head has pointed out in another X post, the Bitcoin Exchange Inflow witnessed a surge on Tuesday.
Investors generally deposit their coins in centralized exchanges when they want to participate in one of the services that they provide, which can include selling. As such, the growth in the Exchange Inflow could be a sign that holders are still trading away their Bitcoin.
Bitcoin slipped under $112,000 on Tuesday, but the coin has seen a slight bounce since then as its price has climbed to $113,000.
