The total number of Bitcoin (BTC) whale entities has recently hit its highest level since January 2021, with data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode showing there are 1,678 BTC whales.
The data suggests that large cryptocurrency investors have been accumulating, to the point that those who have over 1,000 BTC in their wallets, equivalent to round $66 million, have kept on growing sine early 2023.
The data was first shared by André Dragosch, European Head of Research at Bitwise and was shared on the microblogging platform X. Whale activity is closely monitored in the cryptocurrency space, as their influence over prices could be significant.
The number of Bitcoin whales hit a three-year high at time in which a number of Bitcoin addresses that have “never had a Bitcoin outflow” are currently accumulating the flagship cryptocurrency at an unprecedented pace, to the point they are now holding 2.9 million BTC, worth around $194 billion at the time of writing.
These addresses, according to CryptoQuant analyst Burak Kesmeci, had around 1.5 million BTC at the beginning of the year, and the figure has nearly doubled in just 10 months.
Per the analyst, these Bitcoin accumulation addresses continue to “accumulate patiently and boldly without selling off their holdings” and have never had a Bitcoin outflows so far as they are focused on long-term investing.
Kesmeci also added that back in 2018 these addresses held 100,000 BTC, and that their accumulation kept on growing since then, to the point that the figure “shot up to 700,000” by the 2021 bull rally.
This year the “real growth happened” as they moved toward the 3 million BTC mark – which the analyst estimates could occur before the end of this year – which would put their entire holdings above the market capitalizations of giant corporations like General Electric, if BTC’s price is to rise to $70,000 by year end.
Featured image via Unsplash.
