Cryptocurrency whales accumulating the embattled native token of Celsius Network, $CEL, led to a surge of more than 900% for it after a major sell-off driven by macroeconomic factors and the platform halting withdrawals.
According to leading blockchain analytics firm Santiment, shark and whale addresses moved “behind the scenes” to accumulate the cryptocurrency after $CEL dropped to a $0.09 low earlier this month after withdrawals were frozen.
The result was a pump of more than 290% over 10 days, and of over 900% so far as the cryptocurrency is, at the time of writing, trading at $0.92, down from a $1.5 high. In a post detailing its findings, Santiment noted three different large groups of investors were behind the surge.
The first group are investors holding between 100 and 10,000 CEL, which were the “crowd leading the pump.” The second group are investors with between 10,000 and 100,000 CEL, which were “behaving more or less the same.”
CEL whales, those with between 100,000 ad 1 million tokens, have been “buying early,” which according to Santiment “is the expected behaviour for whales.” The firm detailed all three groups “bought a lot directly into the dump, then selling more or less on the way up, then buying again.”
CEL is the native token of popular cryptocurrency Celsius Network, which earlier this month announced it was freezing withdrawal for its 1.7 million customers. In the announcement, Celsius wrote “taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations.” It added users will keep accruing rewards on their holdings.
There have been questions surrounding Celsius’ high yields and its exposure to Terra’s ecosystem ahead of its collapse, as well as questions surrounding its losses after the BadgerDAO hack. The firm hasn’t reinstated withdrawals so far, and has paused routine ask-me-anything sessions held with the public.
As CryptoGlobe reported, cryptocurrency prices plunged after Celsius’ announcement, with the total market capitalization of the space going under $1 trillion for the first time since early 2021 over the sell-off.
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