A report published by cryptocurrency exchange Kraken shows a substantial increase in Bitcoin whale accumulation.
Since March 2020, Bitcoin’s price has shot up by more than 400%. But the high prices haven’t put large investors off. According to the report, Bitcoin whales have just kept on buying.
According to Kraken, the total number of Bitcoin whales holding over 100 Bitcoin has broken above 16,300—a figure that hasn’t been seen since March 16, 2020.
Many of these addresses represent Bitcoin’s new institutional investors, who have been increasingly attracted to the asset ever since MicroStrategy invested $425 million in Bitcoin in the summer.
The aggregate amount of Bitcoin on these addresses hit approximately 11.46 million BTC in December, representing the highest level seen throughout all of 2020. So not only are there more whales, but they are growing their stashes too.
This figure shows how major investments in Bitcoin have—at least to date—been worthwhile. Microstrategy now has over $2.6 billion worth of Bitcoin, and Square, which purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin in October, has made a net gain of over $120 million on its purchase.
Bitcoin leaving the Kraken exchange
Kraken's report shows that Bitcoin balances on the exchange “stayed true to the year’s trend,” with most activity consisting of participants moving the coins off of the exchange.
This could indicate that Bitcoin owners are holding their assets for the long term and avoiding volatile markets, as Decrypt has previously reported.
There are, however, other explanations for this behaviour.
According to the Kraken report, the combined phenomena of whale accumulation and net outflows of coins could be an indication that market participants continue to see some slight near-term upside despite the unprecedented increase in price.
Today, Bitcoin continues its unprecedented bull run, hitting the $38,000 price bracket just moments ago, boosting the value of each whale’s holdings.
Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.
