Bitcoin Whales Continue Buying, Now Hold 25.16% Of All Supply

On-chain data shows that the Bitcoin whales’ holdings have grown to 25.16% of the entire supply, and their net accumulation has continued recently.

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the BTC whales have accumulated more than 266,000 BTC since the start of the year. The indicator of interest here is the “Supply Distribution,” which keeps track of the percentage of the total circulating Bitcoin supply that the various wallet groups are holding right now.

The addresses are divided into these cohorts based on the number of coins they currently have in their balance. The 10 to 100 coins group, for example, includes all wallets that own at least 10 and, at most, 100 BTC.

The Supply Distribution sums up the amount that investors belonging to a particular group as a whole are carrying and calculates what percentage of the supply they contribute.

The 1,000 to 10,000 BTC cohort is of interest in the current discussion. At the current exchange rate, the lower limit for this cohort is $65 million, while the upper one is $650 million.

Clearly, the investors belonging to the group are quite massive, and as such, they are popularly known as “whales.” As the whales can quickly move large amounts, they have the potential to influence the market. Due to this, their behavior can be worth watching.

There are whales beyond this cohort’s 10,000 BTC upper limit as well, but at such massive scales, entities like exchanges also start coming into play, who aren’t exactly normal investors.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Supply Distribution for the 1,000 to 10,000 coins group over the last few months:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Supply Distribution for this key investor group has observed a net rise over the year 2024 so far. The whales have bought 266,000 BTC ($17.2 billion) over this period.

However, this accumulation hasn’t been consistent. As is visible in the chart, the whales sold into the rally that would eventually lead to the asset’s new all-time high, and they bought back in once the drawdown was over.

As BTC has consolidated, so has its supply. Still, the latest change in the metric has been towards the upside, implying that these humongous holders are perhaps backing the current recovery push.

Following the latest accumulation, the 1,000 to 10,000 coins group holds 25.16% of the supply, which means that more than a quarter of all Bitcoin in circulation is sitting in the wallets of these large investors.

While whale buying is bullish, the current investor sentiment may not be so. As the data for the “Weighted Sentiment” metric attached by Santiment in the chart suggests, investors are currently showing FOMO towards the asset.

Historically, Bitcoin has tended to move against the majority’s expectations, so FUD/fear has been ideal for uptrends to start. FOMO/greed, on the other hand, has been where tops have become probable.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $64,700, up more than 7% over the past week.