Whales Accumulate Over 133,000 BTC in Under a Month Amid Bitcoin Price Slump

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to trade under pressure on Tuesday following a further decline earlier last week when its price dipped below the crucial $60,000 threshold, a historical support zone.

This drop, triggered by exchange inflows by whales on Tuesday following the arrest of Telegram CEO in France, led to a surge in trading volumes as market panic set in. At press time, however, Bitcoin had stabilized and was hovering around $57,998, marking a 2.64 decline over the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) whales have been actively accumulating despite this momentary calm after the storm. According to the crypto analytics platform Santiment, these large holders have collectively acquired Bitcoin worth about $7.8 billion in less than a month. This accumulation spree unfolded amid a significant price downturn, which saw the drop in BTC to as low as $49,140 on August 5.

Interestingly, as per Santiment, while smaller traders are offloading their Bitcoin holdings in response to the price drop, these larger holders were taking advantage of the downturn to increase their holdings.

“Bitcoin currently sits at $58.9K, which is apparently just fine for whale and shark holders. Over the past month, wallets with 10-10K BTC have collectively accumulated 133.3K more coins while smaller traders continue to impatiently drop their holdings to them.” Wrote Santiment.

That said, despite the current accumulation of whales being seen as a precursor to a potential rebound, analysts are divided on what the near future holds for Bitcoin. Analyst Rachel Lucas of BTC Markets attributed the decline to a combination of factors, including an oversold US dollar index and negative seasonality. The pundit, thus, did not rule out the possibility of Bitcoin falling further to around $56,000 if the price remains below its 50-day moving average of $61,991.

On the other hand, analyst Alan Santana stated on TradingView that he is preparing for what he calls the “2024 Bitcoin Crash,” suggesting that Bitcoin could drop to $49,000, which lies around the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level from the bullish wave seen between September 2023 and March 2024. He further noted that the 0.618 Fibonacci level, now around $43,500, could serve as critical support, likely prompting a natural bounce or pullback.

On the contrary, another analyst, “Cobra Vanguard,” pointed to a bullish price channel on the BTC weekly chart. He further emphasized that Bitcoin may have completed its fourth downward wave and could be on the verge of breaking through the ascending triangle to complete its fifth wave, sending its price to around $120,000.