The biggest holders of Bitcoin can’t get enough of the stuff. According to new research from crypto data firm CryptoQuant, “demand growth” from whales has never been stronger.
That means that the investors holding the most Bitcoin (BTC) want even more of the orange coin than ever before.
Bitcoin whales are investors who hoard huge amounts of Bitcoin (at least 1,000 BTC, or at least $69 million at today’s price) and don’t touch it for years. Such investors make large gains as a result—although whales are more likely to be companies and institutional holders rather than individuals.
“Currently, demand growth from this cohort of investors is at the highest ever,” said CryptoQuant, adding that demand growth from large investors has led to price rises in the past.
CryptoQuant added that demand from “permanent holders” has outpaced the creation of new Bitcoin for the first time ever—and this will likely lead to a rally in BTC’s price following the halving this month.
The halving is scheduled to take place next week, a quadrennial event that will cut Bitcoin miner rewards in half. This is expected to lead to greater scarcity in the amount of coins on the market.
Some analysts have said that the price of the asset will go up as a result—especially combined with the influx of capital flowing into the space following the introduction of massively popular Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“This year demand has been growing much faster because of ETFs,” a CryptoQuant spokesperson told Decrypt. “These whales include new whales, old whales, and also ETFs.”
The price of Bitcoin has shot up this year: it’s currently trading for $69,316 per coin, having touched a new all-time high of nearly $74,000 last month. At the start of the year, BTC was priced at under $45,000.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.