A mysterious buying spree has gripped the Bitcoin market, with the permanent holders accumulating nearly $23 billion worth of the cryptocurrency over the past month amid a surge in demand that has sparked speculation.
According to on-chain data shared by the CEO of popular cryptocurrency analytics firm CryptoQuant, Ji Young Ju, there was a dramatic increase in Bitcoin held by “permanent holder addresses” over the last 30 days, which added 404,448 BTC in that period.
These are accounts that have shown a history of long-term holding behavior. Ki Young Ju said that he believes “something is happening behind the scenes” to account for this accumulation that he described in July as occurring at “an unprecedented level.”
The accumulation coincided with a recent market downturn, which saw Bitcoin’s price drop below the $50,000 mark before it started recovering. In a separate post, Ju pointed out that cryptocurrency miner capitulation is “nearly over,” adding that hashrate is now nearing a new all-time high.
Per his words, retail investors are “mostly absent, similar to mid-2020,” while activity of whales with over three years in the space has reduced after they sold their funds to new whales. Nevertheless, he warned macro risks “could lead to forced sell-offs,” while some on-chain indicators “turned bearish but are borderline.”
Notably, the recent cryptocurrency market sell-off saw the market’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunge into its lowest level in two years signaling “extreme fear” among investors for the first time since July 2022.
The index, which utilizes multiple sources, including social media, to produce a relative number that reflects investor sentiment, has risen from 6 when BTC dropped below $18,000 last year. Per the index, behavior in the cryptocurrency market is “very emotional” and people “get greedy when the market is rising which results in FOMO (Fear of missing out).”
Featured image via Unsplash.
