Altcoin Watch: Mega Whales Are Taking These Alts Off Exchanges

On-chain data shows the whales of these altcoins have been shifting their supply from exchanges to cold wallets recently, a sign that may be bullish for their prices.

In a new post on X, the on-chain analytics firm Santiment has discussed the trend in the Top Exchange/Non-Exchange Wallet Holdings for three altcoins: Polygon (MATIC), Injective (INJ), and Render (RENDER).

The “Top Exchange/Non-Exchange Wallet Holdings” here refers to an indicator that keeps track of the ratio between the balance of the ten largest wallets associated with centralized exchanges and that of the ten largest self-custodial addresses.

The ten largest wallets of either type would naturally belong to the whales, the largest of the entities in the sector. In fact, these addresses wouldn’t be just any ordinary whales, but rather investors that are humongous even by whale standards.

As such, the Top Exchange/Non-Exchange Wallet Holdings tells us about how the supply held by the exchange-related mega whales compares against the ones keeping their coins in cold wallets.

Below is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in this indicator for the altcoins over the last couple of years:

As is visible in the above graph, the Top Exchange/Non-Exchange Wallet Holdings has registered sharp plunges for all three of these altcoins in the last two years, with Polygon seeing the latest one.

The plunge in question had come for MATIC on the 9th of this month, with the mega whales moving a pretty significant amount to self-custody. In the days since then, the indicator has continued to decline for the altcoin, although the scale of the drawdown has been nowhere near what was witnessed during the aforementioned plummet.

Render’s mega whales made a massive transfer towards cold wallets back on the 21st of July, and the ratio has since maintained at low levels. INJ’s plunge was much earlier, back on August 21st of last year, but the large hands have continued to gradually offload more supply from exchanges since then.

Generally, investors keep their coins in the custody of exchanges whenever they plan to participate in trading activities in the near term. Thus, the exchange supply of any asset may be considered as a reflection of its potential sell supply.

In this view, the shift that the mega whales of these altcoins have shown towards self-custody can be a bullish sign. The indicator may be to monitor in the near future, however, as any reversals would imply that the mega whales want to sell again and, hence, that a bearish outcome may be waiting for the coins instead.

At the time of writing, Render is floating around $4.8, down 8% over the past week.