Bitcoin Whales Show Most Active Hours in 3 Months as BTC Drops Below $30,000

On-chain data shows bitcoin whales have had their most active time in nearly three months as the asset surged above $30,000.

The number of bitcoin whale transactions has seen a recent increase

According to data from on-chain analytics firm EmotionThe 259 whale transactions took place two hours after the local top that the cryptocurrency has seen so far during the past day.

The relevant metric here is the “whale transaction count,” which measures the total number of bitcoin transactions that have a value of at least $1 million that occur on the blockchain.

Normally, only whales are able to move such large amounts with a single transfer, these transactions can give us clues about the degree of activity whales are displaying right now.

When the whale transaction count has a high value, it means that a large amount of whale transactions are currently happening on the network. Naturally, such a trend would mean that whales are highly active at the moment.

Because the amounts involved in these transfers are so large, a large number occurring simultaneously can result in significant volatility in the asset’s price. Thus, when the number of whale transactions increases, the cryptocurrency may be more likely to show high volatility.

Now, here is a chart showing the trend of the number of bitcoin whale transactions over the past week:

Looks like the value of the metric has been quite high in recent days | Source: Santiment on Twitter

As shown in the above graph, there has been a huge increase in the number of bitcoin whale transactions during the past day. This extraordinary jump in the indicator occurred about two hours after the asset reached its local top and lasted for about an hour.

In this hour, whales made 259 transactions, the highest amount in three months. As mentioned earlier, as for the implications of this spike on the asset’s price, higher values ​​for the indicator could result in greater volatility for the cryptocurrency.

However, such volatility can go either way, as the metric only counts the net number of whale transactions that occur on the blockchain; There is no information about whether the transfer is for the purpose of purchase or sale.

Nonetheless, additional context such as the prevailing price trend can perhaps help us better estimate what these whales intend to achieve with these large transactions.

Since the surge in the indicator came right after the BTC top, it is possible that whales were looking to sell before the asset sees further downside. The price continued to decline after these transfers, indicating that at least some selling took place.

However, this decline has been short-lived so far, as bitcoin has already recovered above the $30,000 level. This could be an indication that even though there was some selling, it was still at such a low level that the market was able to absorb it properly.

btc price

At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading around $30,100, up 21% over the past week.

BTC has surged during the last couple of days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image by Todd Cravens on Unsplash.com Charts from TradingView.com Sentiment.net