On-chain data shows that Bitcoin investors holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC have been on an unprecedented buying spree in the past two months.
Bitcoin Supply Held By Sharks Has Sharply Gone Up Recently
As analyst Willy Woo explains in a new post on X, a group of high-net-worth Bitcoin investors has been buying heavily recently. More specifically, these holders are carrying between 100 and 1,000 BTC in their wallets right now.
At the current cryptocurrency exchange rate, the lower bound of this range is about $6.2 million, while the upper one is about $62 million. Investors of this size are popularly known as “sharks.”
Given these large holdings, sharks can exert some influence in the market, although they are less significant than the whales, the largest holders (1,000+ BTC).
Below is the Glassnode chart shared by Woo, which displays the trend in the total amount of Bitcoin supply held by the investors belonging to this range over the last few years:
The value of the metric seems to have sharply gone up in recent weeks | Source: @woonomic on X
Note that the supply measured isn’t of the addresses holding 100 to 1,000 BTC but rather of “entities” owning an amount in this range. An entity is a collection of addresses that Glassnode has identified as belonging to the same investor through its analysis.
Entities provide a more accurate representation of the market, as some investors like to spread out their holdings across multiple wallets. Transactions between an investor’s addresses would naturally not be relevant for the wider market but would count as buying or selling if only addresses are considered.
The graph shows that the supply held by the Bitcoin shark entities has grown rapidly over the last two months or so. This increase implies that the cohort as a whole has participated in aggressive accumulation.
No buying phase from this cohort during the past few years has come close to the scale of this latest rise. As the long-term view of the same indicator shared by Woo suggests, this latest shopping spree stands out even compared to historical accumulation streaks.
The trend in the holdings of the sharks over the history of the asset| Source: @woonomic on X
Regarding the BTC value, this buying streak may not be the single largest in the coin’s history. Still, while the cryptocurrency has been trading at extremely high prices in the $60,000 to $70,000 range, this accumulation makes it the most impressive USD value.
To some, however, this latest accumulation looks unnatural due to its sharpness. On-chain analyst Checkmate has argued that this metric would largely measure coins going into smaller exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Woo, though, has countered by suggesting that the ETFs wouldn’t be enough to account for the rise, so there has to be some demand from non-central entities present here.
Checkmate has remained skeptical, finding it hard to believe an army of large investors would buy tens of billions of Bitcoin in this short period. The analyst rather thinks the data is more reflecting wallet management by an exchange or other custodial entity.
BTC Price
Bitcoin’s recovery attempt has again fizzled out without consequence, as the asset has returned to $62,200.
The price of the asset appears to have dropped over the last couple of days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView