Bitcoin (BTC) Whales on Unusual Selling Spree, Is a Correction Imminent?

The digital currency ecosystem is still seeing mild volatility as the combined market cap is up 0.55% to $1.65 trillion on an observed selling spree by Bitcoin whales. As pointed out by top market analyst Ali Martinez, the Bitcoin Whale selloffs intensified in the past week with more than 50,000 BTC units sold off. 

Bitcoin Whales Selloff and Market Implications

The total Bitcoin sold by whales is worth about $2.2 billion according to the estimate made by Martinez. This significant capital shift is indicative of a major trend among the market movers as it is closely linked to profit-taking, a trend characteristic of sustained price runs.

#Bitcoin whales have sold around 50,000 $BTC over the past week, worth roughly $2.20 billion! pic.twitter.com/rBK8DGmg8B

— Ali (@ali_charts) December 22, 2023

According to the chart shared by Martinez, Bitcoin Whales’ action climbed steadily from mid-November and crested by December 6 to 9. Within this period, the price of the BTC jumped intensely from a low of $36,756.33 to a high mark of $44,705.52. While the closely linked whale selloff did not immediately impact the growth trend, it does leave some skepticism about the potential of the rally to be sustained into the near future.

Bitcoin whales’ selloff is often accompanied by a price drawdown. At the moment, there seems to be a counterbalance between the liquidations and other key on-chain metrics. At the moment, data from crypto analytics platform IntoTheBlock shows that Bitcoin’s Daily Active Addresses (DAA) is up 3.46% to 818,006. 

With more addresses engaging with the network, there is a subtle compensation for the ton of BTC being offloaded by the Bitcoin Whales, thus helping to cushion any impending price slump.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is priced at $43,585.73, down by 0.53% in the past 24 hours and per earlier analysis, BTC is chasing a new high for the year. 

The Bitcoin ETF Boost

Besides the active on-chain addresses boost, the spot Bitcoin ETF sentiment is also aiding the resilience of the top coin at the moment.

With the advancing discussions between spot Bitcoin ETF applicants like BlackRock and Fidelity Investments amongst others and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the anticipation that this product will finally see the light of day is increasing. With the approval odds still pegged at 90%, investors, in general, are playing the long game as it concerns timely BTC ETF application, hence the resilience being shown.