Where is the culprit? Bitcoin whales took profits and exited in February, reducing their holdings by 140,000 BTC

After a period of accumulation, whales began to continuously "unload" BTC in February.

According to a new report from crypto market data aggregator Glassnode, Bitcoin whales “unloaded” a large amount of BTC during February.

Glassnode defines “whales” as addresses holding between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC, while “humpback whales” are addresses holding more than 10,000 BTC. The report found that wallets holding 1k to 10k BTC have been on a strong upward trend since March 2020, and the number of whales has increased by more than 14% as of February 5, 2021.

The whale and humpback buying spree peaked in January, when they snapped up 80,000 BTC, worth about $3.84 billion at today’s prices.

But since February, whales and humpbacks appear to have begun to take profits, with whales shedding 140,000 BTC — the equivalent of $6.72 billion — since the beginning of the month.

Data shows an inverse correlation between whales’ trading activity and smaller but very wealthy investors. Glassnode noted that in January, dolphins/sharks (addresses holding between 100 BTC and 1,000 BTC) shed 95,000 BTC worth $4.56 billion, but in February they turned bullish, accumulating 117,000 Bitcoin ($5.61 billion) since the beginning of the month:

“It’s interesting to note how changes in supply for dolphins/sharks (purple) and whales/humpbacks (green) are reflected in both size and shape. When one category gets bigger, the other gets smaller (and vice versa).”

Octopuses/fish (wallets holding 10 to 100 BTC, shown in red on the chart above) have been reducing their holdings since November 2020, selling more than 128,000 Bitcoins, or about $6.14 billion, in less than four months.

The 20% drop in BTC prices this week triggered a lot of whale action, among which one smart whale successfully cashed out $156 million before the plunge began on Monday.

The latest research from trading platform CrossTower believes that institutional buying will keep BTC above $50,000 for a long time, and concerns about further downtrend may not persist.

Original article: https://cointelegraph.com/news/whales-offloaded-140k-bitcoin-this-month-glassnode

By BRIAN QUARMBY

Compiled by: Yunjin