Bitcoin Sharks Continue to Accumulate, But Whales Stand Still

On-chain data shows that the number of bitcoin sharks has continued to increase recently, but the number of whales on the network has stagnated.

The recent increase in the number of bitcoin sharks continues

According to data from on-chain analytics firm EmotionDuring the last few months there has been a slight decline in the number of whales on the bitcoin blockchain.

The relevant indicator here is “supply distribution”, which measures the total number of addresses belonging to each wallet group on the network.

Addresses are divided into these “wallet groups” based on the total amount of BTC they are currently carrying in their balance. In the context of the present discussion, there are four groups that are of interest: 0–0.01 coins, 0.01–1 coins, 1–100 coins, and 100+ coins.

Naturally, the balance of addresses belonging to any of these groups will be within the range of the respective group. So if supply distribution is applied to these groups, it will tell us (among other things) the total number of addresses on the chain that satisfy the relevant conditions.

Now, here is a chart showing the trend of bitcoin supply distribution for each of these four groups since the beginning of the year:

Looks like only one of these metrics has continued to constantly grow in recent days | Source: Santiment on Twitter

The first of these groups, the 0-0.01 coin range, represents the small retail holders of the market. From the above graph, it is visible that the number of these investors has not changed much recently as their supply distribution curve has been moving sideways for the last seven weeks. This shows that the adoption of cryptocurrencies among small investors is not increasing at the moment.

The second cluster of relevance (0.01-1 BTC) has also been moving at a flat pace recently, suggesting that retail investors have come to a standstill on the network as a whole.

However, unlike these groups, the value of the indicator for the group of 1-100 coins, sometimes popularly referred to as “shards”, has only continued to climb higher over the past few months. This would mean that these decent-sized holders are still interested in buying the cryptocurrency, which could be a positive sign for the asset’s rally.

Although sharks may hold some influence in the market due to the size of their holdings, they do not have the same power as the largest group in the market: whales.

These huge investors with 100+ BTC can move huge amounts of coins on the network, and thus, create remarkable ripples in the market. For this reason, observing the behavior of these holders can be considered most important.

As shown in the graph, there has been a decline in the number of whales on the network during the past few months, although the degree of the downtrend has not been great. However, one fact remains: they haven’t been piling up lately.

It may be worth keeping an eye on what these investors do from here, as sentiment suggests that if they start buying again, the potential for a breakout will increase significantly.

btc price

At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading around $29,300, down 3% over the past week.

BTC has plunged during the past day | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image by Flavio on Unsplash.com Chart from Tradingview.com Sentiment.net