Bitcoin Sharks & Whales Do $2.2 Billion Selloff, But BTC Hangs On At $37,000

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin sharks and whales have participated in a selloff of around $2.2 billion during the past week.

As pointed out by analyst Ali in a post on X, the large BTC investors might have been harvesting their profits recently. The indicator of interest here is the “BTC Supply Distribution,” which keeps track of the total amount of Bitcoin the different wallet groups in the sector are holding.

The addresses or investors are divided into these groups based on the total number of coins they currently carry. For instance, the 1 to 10 coins cohort includes all wallets with a balance of at least 1 and at most 10 BTC.

In the context of the current discussion, the 100 to 10,000 BTC range is of focus. The 100 to 1,000 coins group is popularly called the “sharks,” while the 1,000 to 10,000 cohort includes the whales.

Both groups carry significant amounts, so their behavior can be relevant for the wider market. Though the whales are much larger of the two, and thus hold much more influence on the network.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the combined Supply Distribution of the Bitcoin sharks and whales over the past couple of months:

As displayed in the above graph, the 100 to 10,000 coins Bitcoin investors have seen their supply go through a steep drawdown during the past week. During this drop, these humongous entities have sold around 60,000 BTC, worth about $2.2 billion at the current asset price.

This is a notable amount, and considering that the timing of the distribution has coincided with BTC’s latest break above the $37,000 level, it would appear possible that these key holders have participated in this huge selloff to harvest the profits that they would have amassed in the rally.

The sharks and whales also took part in some selling when BTC had broken above $35,000 last month, but both the rate and the scale of the selloff were lesser when compared to the one now, as the Supply Distribution for these cohorts has plunged rather steeply this time around.

So far, however, despite this large selloff, Bitcoin hasn’t had much trouble maintaining around the $37,000 mark. The asset initially saw a pullback when the selling started, as it retraced towards $36,000, but it rebounded back quickly enough.

That said, BTC may not be able to break out of its sideways movement toward the upside without the backing of the sharks and whales. The aforementioned surge towards the $37,000 had also occurred just after these investors had made some huge buying moves.

Bitcoin has continued to consolidate around the $37,000 level during the past few days as the chart below shows.