Capitulation or profit-taking? Bitcoin whale moves 32K BTC dormant since 2018
Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $600 million moved for the first time since the last bear market on October 18, analysis has revealed.
In a Twitter threadmonitoring resource Whalemap flagged a transaction involving 32,000 BTC.
Buyer may be “willing to acquire” 32,000 BTC at $19,000
In the latest sign that the current spot price is affecting the behavior of even longer-term holders, a whale unit that bought BTC near the trough of the last bear market appears to have sold.
According to Whalemap, 32,000 coins left the wallet for the first time since December 2018 this week.
“32,000 Bitcoins belonging to a whale wallet moved yesterday. They have been dormant since December 2018,” the Whalemap team wrote in the accompanying comment.
While it’s unknown exactly what was behind the decision, Whalemap was quick to argue an alternative perspective to the classic bear market narrative – big investors capitulating at rock bottom. The team added:
“Transactions like this usually mean OTC trades, which means someone is willing to buy those 32k bitcoins right now.”
Despite BTC/USD being down over 70% from all-time highs, the 32,000 BTC stash would have yielded a significant profit, having been bought at $3,900.
Four years later, they are worth $612 million against the roughly $124 million paid.
Continuing, Whalemap noted that due to the popularity of the 2018 lows as a buy-in point, this price zone represents a significant area of support.
“Not many people know about this, but a lot of Bitcoin was accumulated by whales exactly in the region from which the above transaction originates,” it wrote.
“Even right now 337,000 accumulated BTC is still HODLed in these wallets. A super important area in BTC land to keep ur [eye] on.”
Currency balances accelerate the decline
Signs that even $19,000 is becoming popular as a BTC trading or investment play are coming from exchanges this month.
Related: Here’s What Could Trigger a ‘Major BTC Rally’ As Bitcoin Clings To $19K
Data from chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that in recent days, major exchanges have seen their BTC balances drop more per day compared to last month than at any point since mid-July.
The 19 trading platforms tracked by Glassnode were down approximately 100,000 BTC in the last 30 days on both October 18th and 19th.
The last date that exchanges ended the day with more BTC than they started with compared to a month before was October 8th.
The exchange’s total balance was just over 2.34 million BTC as of October 19, down from 2.46 million at the end of September.
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