New data shows that bitcoin (BTC) whale buying and selling in 2023 has been done mostly by speculative investors.
In the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, “The Week On-Chain,” analytics firm Glassnode shows that contrary to popular belief, opportunistic entities are the most active whales.
The birth of the bitcoin “short-term holder” whale
Ever since BTC price action returned to $30,000, there has been a turnaround among bitcoin traders.
As Glassnode shows, so-called short-term holders (STH) – investors holding coins for a maximum of 155 days – have become quite common.
As it turns out, the investor group with the largest volume, whales, is also made up of a large amount of STH.
Glassnode says, “Short-term holder dominance in exchange inflows has increased to 82%, which is now well above the long-term range (typically 55% to 65%) over the past five years.”
“From this, we can establish a case that the recent trading activity is driven by whales operating within the 2023 market (and thus classified as STH).
Interest in trading shorter-time-frames on BTC/USD was already evident since May. Since the FTX downturn in late 2022, speculators have been eager to take advantage of both the upside and downside volatility.
Results have been mixed: realized profits and losses have regularly escalated in line with volatile price moves.
Glassnode continues, “If we look at the degree of gain/loss achieved by short-term holder volume flowing into exchanges, it becomes clear that these new investors are trading in local market conditions.”
“Each rally and correction since the FTX results has seen STH gains or losses increase by 10k+ BTC respectively.”
Whales show “elevated flow bias” towards exchanges
At the current close, whales have ramped up exchange activity, at one point in July accounting for 41% of total flows.
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The Week On-Chain comments on this topic, “Analysis of whale netflows across exchanges can be used as a proxy for their impact on supply and demand balance.”
“Whales-to-exchange netflow has been oscillating between ±5k BTC/day over the past five years. However, during June and July this year, whale inflows have maintained a high flow bias of between 4.0k to 6.5k BTC/day.
As Cointelegraph reported, whales are not the only force when it comes to BTC sales.
Mining pool Poolin made headlines due to its trading for Binance, while also contributing to sell-side activity with miners potentially hedging profits.
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This article does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making decisions.