The number of bitcoin whales – those with over 1,000 BTC in their addresses – has hit a two-year high ahead of the cryptocurrency’s halving event, in the aftermath of the coronavirus-induced market crash.
According to a report published by crypto monitoring resource Glassnode Insights, bitcoin whales have started accumulating bitcoin over the last few months, in a pattern similar to one seen in 2016, at the time of the flagship cryptocurrency’s second halving event. Back then, the number of bitcoin whales hit an all-time high of 2,000.
Source: Glassnode
Back then, there were about 1,600 entities with over 1,000 BTC in their addresses, but the figure soon started rising as the halving approached. This year, a similar pattern appears to be emerging, as cryptocurrency investors anticipate the event’s effects on the market.
The halving itself will see bitcoin’s block rewards drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block, at block height 630,000, expected on May 12. Some analysts believe the price of the cryptocurrency may go up after the halving, as demand doesn’t change, but supply is cut in half. Indeed, other block reward halvings were followed by bull runs.
Other analysts, however, point to the Efficient Market Hypothesis to argue that as everyone knows the halving is going to occur and supply will be cut in half, the event is already priced in. These bull runs after other halvings could have been driven by other factors, such as increasing adoption.
As CryptoGlobe reported, data shows that Google searches for “bitcoin halving” have been surging over the last few months, and are now at an all-time high.
Featured image via Unsplash.
