Below is how much bitcoin whales have added to their combined holdings since the beginning of 2024, based on on-chain data.
bitcoin whales have accumulated this amount of btc in 2024
in a mail In X, on-chain analysis company Santiment has analyzed the changes that have taken place in bitcoin shark and whale holdings this year.
The metric of interest here is the “Supply Distribution”, which tells us about the total amount of bitcoin held by different groups of wallets on the network at the moment. Addresses are divided into these wallet groups based on the number of coins they currently have in their balance.
In the context of the current topic, two groups in particular are relevant: the “sharks” and the “whales.” Sharks are generally defined as btc investors who own between 100 and 1,000 btc, while whales are those with between 1,000 and 10,000 btc.
As both cohorts have large holdings, they can have some influence on the market. Naturally, whales are the more powerful of the two groups, as their holdings are simply the largest.
Generally, individual moves by members of these groups do not have many visible effects on the market, but when these investors move as a group, the scale can become large enough to send shock waves through the cryptocurrency.
Now, here is a graph showing the trend in the distribution of bitcoin supply for each of these two groups over the past year:
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone aligncenter" src="https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/How-much-Bitcoin-did-whales-buy-in-2024.jpeg" alt="Sharks and whales bitcoin” width=”2665″ height=”1755″/>
Looks like the metric has gone opposite ways for these groups | Source: Santiment on X
As shown in the chart above, the supply of bitcoin held by whales has increased considerably since the beginning of the year. The supply of sharks, on the other hand, has seen a notable reduction over the same period.
In total, the 1,000 to 10,000 btc wallet pool added 248,900 btc, while the 100 to 1,000 btc pool sold 151,200 btc. At the current price of the asset, these amounts are worth around $13 billion and $8 billion, respectively.
Clearly, while sharks have participated in some sales, purchases from the most influential whales have more than made up for it. On a net basis, the market has seen $5 billion worth of accumulation by these large holders.
Part of the apparent shark selloff may, in fact, simply be the result of some members of the cohort buying enough to cross the 1,000 btc threshold, thus becoming part of the whale cohort.
Either way, the whales' strong accumulation is naturally a positive sign for the cryptocurrency as it suggests that these huge holders have supported the coin during its recent streak of bullish momentum.
In the graph, Santiment has also attached data for another metric: the number of transactions made by the whales. This indicator recently reached its highest value in a five-day period since June 2022, showing how these large investors have stepped up their activity.
btc Price
bitcoin has recently followed a general sideways trajectory as its price continues to trade around $52,300.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium aligncenter" src="https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/How-much-Bitcoin-did-whales-buy-in-2024" alt="bitcoin price chart” width=”1534″ height=”854″/>
The price of the coin seems to have gone through a temporary drop over the weekend | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image by Mike Doherty on Unsplash.com, Santiment.net, TradingView.com chart