According to Santiment, Bitcoin (BTC) addresses that hold between 1,000 to 10,000 coins played significant roles in driving the price up. In most corners, Bitcoin’s climb to $52,000 has been attributed only to institutional demand. This was because of the increasing Bitcoin ETF inflows registered by several issuers.
However, a recent post by the crypto analysis tool showed that 1,000 to 10,000 BTC holding cohorts have accumulated $12.85 billion in 2024. On the other hand, the 100 to 1,000 group had let go of $7.89 billion within the same period.
😮 Independent from the impressive volume happening with #Bitcoin #ETF’s, there has been a distinct flip in the level of $BTC’s supply being held by different sized wallets:
🐳 1K-10K $BTC wallets: $12.95B added in 2024
🐋 100-1K $BTC wallets: $7.89B dropped in 2024(Cont) 👇 pic.twitter.com/BL7Mrj6kLq
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 16, 2024
Whales Take the Credit Not Retail
The increase suggests that whales have had a high level of activity in recent times. It is important to note that these whales are not necessarily institutional investors. In addition to the update, Santiment noted, “The most recent 5-day span has seen the highest level of transactions exceeding $100K in value since June 2022.”
From an on-chain perspective, if whales continue to accumulate BTC in the same way, the price could rise way higher than $52,000. Also, if this happens alongside increasing demand for the ETFs, a jump towards $55,000 might be an option.
But beyond the surging whale interest, retail participation has been low. According to Glassnode data shared by analyst Ali Martinez, there has been a decline in the number of Bitcoin new addresses.
As the price of #Bitcoin increases, there’s a noticeable decline in the creation of new $BTC addresses daily.
This trend points towards a lack of retail participation in the current #BTC bull rally, suggesting that the recent price action is primarily fueled by institutional… pic.twitter.com/DVVfcQ20bG
— Ali (@ali_charts) February 16, 2024
BTC Faces Resistance at $52,000
The 4-hour BTC/USD chart showed that the week-long rally seemed to have stalled. At press time, the coin price was $51,920, indicating some resistance around $52,000. However, bears have not been able to take bulls out of the way.
In the same vein, intense profit-taking has not occurred. If BTC remains closer to $52,000, there is a chance that the coin might break the resistance. As of this writing, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) was 59.68.
The indicator’s downturn from its initial overbought level suggests that buyers were exhausted. If this reading continues to drop, the price might turn down below $51,000. Should this be the case, Bitcoin might drop to $49,941. This was the point where it flipped resistance into support earlier.
BTC/USD 4-Hour Chart (Source: TradingView)
If this is the case, the possibility of a price increase might remain valid. However, a decline down to $47,917 could invalidate the thesis. In addition, signals from the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) showed that the uptrend might eventually end in consolidation.
At press time, the CMF trended downwards, indicating that accumulation was slowing down. This was also a sign that Bitcoin might not have another significant price increase soon.
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