As Bitcoin Prices Plunged To $9k, $32 Million Worth Of BTC Withdrawn From Exchanges

The price of Bitcoin is influenced by many variables. There is the demand side, regulations, and the effect of miners. Earlier today, as Bitcoin prices slid to below $9,000, a whopping 3,486 coins (over $32 million) were moved from different cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Coinbase Received 987 BTC In the Last 24 Hrs

This is according to data streams from ViewBase, an analytics firm, which also shows that Coinbase was the major beneficiary—going against the grain.

In the last 24 hours, the exchange received 987 BTC which is in contrast with the events of the last few weeks when there was apathy amongst traders. In response to the exchange crashing when BTC prices rise or fall, traders who couldn’t take advantage of price volatility were agitated, calling for mass withdrawals from the exchange.

From available data, over 22,000 BTC or five times the amount withdrawn from Huobi, was moved from the US exchange.

10% of Bitcoin Held In Exchanges

On further analysis, 10 percent of Bitcoin’s total supply is held in cryptocurrency exchanges. Contrary to expectations, exchanges—at this time of heightened volatility, should be net recipients with higher inflows.

Instead, there is renewed confidence judging from the flow of Bitcoin.

Often, traders—faced with sharp downside pressure, move funds to exchanges and trade them for stablecoins like Tether US (USDT) or fiat. These coins are pegged to fiat currencies (in this case the USD) and mimic the performance of the fiat currency. This way, they are shielded from capital losses.

Confidence Despite BTC Prices sliding

This confidence could stem from the general expectation of price gains more than a month after halving.

Bitcoin is now scarce with scarcity levels near those of gold—which has better valuation and liquidity. If the Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model is anything to go by, BTC could expand in the coming months and even surge past the sell wall of $10,000.

Doubts on the accuracy of the S2F model have been raised by Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.

The tech-whizz kid disagreed wit the model citing several inconsistencies and the multi-faceted nature of Bitcoin fundamentals including hype.

Via Twitter, he said:

“The “halvings cause BTC price rises” theory is unfalsifiable: Was the peak before the halving? Then it “rose in anticipation of the halving” During? “Because of the halving” After? “Because of…” The last $20k peak was near the halfway point between the 2016 and 2020 halvings.”