whale

Binance CEO explains 127K BTC transfer, points to proof-of-reserve audit

A few weeks ago, CZ declared that it’s bad news when exchanges move large amounts of crypto to prove their wallet address.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is moving large amounts of cryptocurrency as part of its proof-of-reserve (PoR) audits, according to its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.

Binance sent 127,351 Bitcoin (BTC), or more than $2 billion, to an unknown wallet on Nov. 28, Whale Alert reported on Nov. 28. According to on-chain data, the transaction occurred at 10:00 am UTC, costing Binance a fee of just 0.000026 BTC ($0.42).

The huge Bitcoin transaction immediately triggered FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt — among the community, with many noting that Binance moved an entire fortune’s worth of BTC in one single transaction.

CZ subsequently took to Twitter to announce that the massive transaction was part of Binance’s PoR audit process. He also called on the community to keep calm and ignore the FUD, stating:

“The auditor requires us to send a specific amount to ourselves to show we control the wallet. And the rest goes to a change address, which is a new address. In this case, the input tx is big, and so is the change.”

The CEO also referred to an old tweet he posted four years ago, calling on the crypto community to “learn about blockchain transactions” and “change addresses.”

“We will be moving some funds between our cold wallets. A tell tale sign of a new cold wallet on Binance is two small transfers from and back an existing wallet, then a large transaction. No need to be alarmed,” CZ wrote in a tweet in October 2018.

In response to growing concern in the replies, the Binance CEO posted another tweet, arguing that investors who “believe FUD all the time” are also “likely to be poor.”

The latest Binance transaction has apparently raised the eyebrows of investors, as CZ himself earlier declared that it’s bad news when exchanges move large amounts of crypto to prove their wallet address. On Nov. 13, CZ tweeted: 

“If an exchange have to move large amounts of crypto before or after they demonstrate their wallet addresses, it is a clear sign of problems. Stay away. Stay #SAFU.”

Binance‘s large transaction comes shortly after former Kraken CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell argued that Binance’s PoR approach was “pointless” without liabilities.

Related: CoinMarketCap launches proof-of-reserve tracker for crypto exchanges

A number of industry experts, including DAO Maker’s Hassan Sheikh and Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, are also confident that exchanges’ PoR practices are useless without liabilities because it’s very difficult for exchanges to fake liabilities.

Wake up call? Bitcoin wallets move 3,500 BTC dormant since 2011

A Bitcoin whale has moved 3,500 BTC to new wallets for the first time since 2011, changing the address format from P2PKH to P2SH.

Amid the ongoing market turbulence for Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, some big investors are waking up to move their BTC holdings that were untouched for about a decade. 

According to on-chain data, seven dormant Bitcoin wallets awakened on Nov. 11 to move a total of 3,500 BTC ($60,6 million) to new addresses. A transaction fee for one of these 500 BTC transactions ($8.7 million) amounted to just 0.00011383 BTC, or $2.00.

Blockchain researcher and developer Kirill Kretov flagged the transactions in a LinkedIn post, noting that the new addresses were “not consolidated” yet.

Each of the mentioned seven addresses was holding 500 BTC for about 11 years, with all seven receiving the stash on July 10, 2011. All of the wallets received the amount at the exact same time, 12:22 pm UTC, and for each of them, it was the very first transaction.

Kretov pointed out that the new wallets have changed the address format from pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) to pay-to-script-hash (P2SH). P2PKH is the most common script type for Bitcoin transactions, where transactions are resolved by sending the public key and a digital signature created by the corresponding private key.

Unlike P2PKH, the P2SH format allows transactions to be sent to a script hash instead of a public key hash, requiring recipients to provide a script hash and additional data. According to online sources, the recipient might need the signatures of several people to spend Bitcoin on P2SH format addresses, or a password might be required.

Related: How to transfer $1 billion for basically free: Bitcoin whale watching

The awakening of dormant BTC addresses isn’t something new to the Bitcoin community. In mid-October, a Bitcoin whale moved as much as 32,000 BTC for the first time since 2018.

Previously, another big BTC investor moved out as much as 48,000 Bitcoin from Coinbase Pro, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju reported. A large portion of the moved Bitcoin was reportedly dormant since 2011. Last year, Cointelegraph reported on a dormant Bitcoin wallet that moved 321 BTC for the first time since 2013.

What are crypto whale trackers and how do they work?

Crypto whale action can affect the price of cryptocurrencies and tracking these whales can offer invaluable and timely insights into price movements.

What are the common crypto whale tracking tools?

Whale tracking tools like Whale Watchers, Whale Bot Alerts and others can help investors spot whale action and make quick and timely decisions.

Whale tracking tools come with different capabilities, some can be just a simple window on top of a blockchain, while others have analytics and charting capabilities across multiple blockchains. Some only cover crypto whale tracking, while others offer NFT whale tracking too. 

Various analytics tools offer just simple analytics and notifications on whale activities, while others provide users with more comprehensive learning opportunities on charts and analytics. Some just do a simple feed, while others tap into channels like Twitter and Telegram to keep users informed.

Some of the key tools for whale watching are Whale Watchers, Whale Bot Alerts, Whale map, Whale alerts, Clank App and Coincarp. Apart from these, tools like Etherscan and Solscan sit on top of their respective blockchains to offer whale-tracking functionalities.

One can get as technically savvy as possible with whale tracking. Yet, market reaction to a whale transaction is not entirely predictable. It is useful to have information around whale behavior, yet, that is just one input that will affect the price action of cryptocurrencies. That is especially true in a market largely driven by macro-economic factors.

What are crypto whale tracking tools used for?

Thanks to whale tracking tools, investors are able to identify wallets that whales own and track them for buy and sell action due to the transparency that blockchain offers. Using tracking tools helps with the automation of the tracking process. 

Most crypto investors own more than one cryptocurrency in their portfolio. In order to be informed of market movements, they will need to identify and track several wallets that hold large volumes of the cryptocurrencies they are interested in. On-chain analytics tools offer this functionality. 

Tracking tools scan through a blockchain, and when a transaction gets committed by a whale wallet, spot them in real time and notify the user. These tools can also help identify transactions that are over a specific size, thereby allowing users to conduct discovery of the whales within that crypto ecosystem.

On a similar note, NFT collections can be tracked for actions like the listing of new nonfungible tokens below floor price, sale of NFTs at bid price, floor sweeps and others. The floor price of a nonfungible token collection is the minimum price at which an NFT can be bought. Occasionally, when the market appetite for an NFT collection is poor, the floor price comes down.

The fall in floor prices often begins with one holder of the NFT listing it below the floor price. Therefore, whale tracking tools can be used to spot such behaviors so that an investor is made aware and act accordingly. 

Floor sweep, on the other hand, indicates high demand for an NFT collection. This refers to the action when someone buys many nonfungible tokens in a collection that are listed at the floor price. Whale tracking tools can spot when a whale’s wallet sweeps the floors of a new collection. This will alert NFT investors, who can then start tracking the new collection.

What is crypto whale tracking?

There are dedicated solutions to track the actions of crypto whales. These solutions can provide analytics on whale actions and, in some instances, can also make investment/trading decisions for the user.

Crypto traders and investors constantly track the amount of cryptocurrencies going in and out of exchanges. When a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ether (ETH) is moved in large quantities into an exchange, it is expected to see some sell action resulting in a fall in price. Conversely, if cryptocurrencies flow out of exchanges into wallets, it is considered a precursor to a rise in price.

This is because when exchanges have a high net outflow of cryptocurrencies, they have reduced supply resulting in an increase in price. Oftentimes, a whale could buy cryptocurrencies on an exchange and move them into their wallets in large volumes. This could result in a bullish price action for the crypto.

In some scenarios, whales may choose not to disturb the markets by buying or selling on an exchange. They would do an over the counter (OTC) transaction between two wallets. For instance, they may send Bitcoin to a wallet that will send USD Coin (USDC) back, resulting in a sale of BTC without the market spotting the transaction.

When the blockchain records a large transaction, investors can study the transaction and pick up the wallets involved in it. If the wallets hold large cryptocurrency positions, they can be labeled as crypto whale wallets. From then on, a regular check on these wallets and the transactions that are conducted can be insightful in assessing price movements of the crypto held in the wallet. 

Whale tracking can be equally beneficial in the NFT markets too. Most NFT communities have large holders of the collection. In many instances, these NFT holders are identified by the community. Tracking the behavior of wallets of these whales can help investors make quick buy/sell decisions.

For instance, if a famous NFT collector or a whale sweeps the floor of a nonfungible token collection, that can indicate high convictions. Followers of the NFT collection and the whale would notice that and purchase the nonfungible tokens. This behavior was noticed with Gary Vaynerchuk several times during the NFT bull market in 2021.

However, it can be overwhelming and time–consuming to manually stay on top of whale action, even when it is just for one cryptocurrency or NFT collection. This is where whale tracking tools come into play.

What are crypto whales?

Most cryptocurrencies have a number of large holders of the asset who can influence the price of the crypto asset. For active investors and crypto traders, it helps to understand the market behaviors of these whales.

Crypto whales refer to large holders of cryptocurrencies. They can be individuals or organizations who often own more than 10% of crypto. For instance, MicroStrategy owns nearly 130,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and can move the price of BTC by their market participation. Therefore, tracking the action of crypto whales provides timely insights into the price movement of a crypto asset.

This is not just a crypto phenomenon. In traditional markets, when a big player like Warren Buffett, a brand or a hedge fund reveals that they have taken a position in a particular asset, the price of the asset rallies or vice-versa. That said, when these players sell an asset, the market typically follows.

With cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), all transactions are on-chain. Thanks to the transparency that blockchain offers, transactions performed by wallets held by whales can be spotted by the size of the crypto positions they hold. These wallets can be tracked to then understand how the wider market could behave.

How to transfer $1 billion for basically free: Bitcoin whale watching

At just 15 sats/vByte, a Bitcoin user is demonstrating just how cheap it is to send vast sums of money across the internet.

Billionaires, take note. It’s one million times cheaper to send huge sums of money on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.

A Bitcoin user sent over 50,562 BTC ($1 billion) to an address on the blockchain, paying a fee of just 2,513 satoshis, or sats (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin), equivalent to half a dollar, for the pleasure. 

Transaction sankey diagram showing fees, value and time. Source: mempool

The unknown wallet address paid a tiny fraction (less than 0.0001%) of the total value transacted. Put simply, the user paid 50 cents to move double the gross domestic product of the Bitcoin-friendly islands of Tonga. The billion-dollar transaction was processed in block 761374, at a transaction fee of just 15 sats per unit of data, or sats/vByte.

Cointelegraph experimented with various online banking services to estimate the cost of sending vast sums of money through legacy finance tools. For the transfer of $10 million, a well-known remittance provider charges a tiny fraction, 0.3%, which equates to $30,000. That’s one million times more expensive than using the Bitcoin blockchain to send money.

Experimenting sending vast sums of money with legacy financial tools. Source: Wise

Before a new Bitcoin block is mined, every Bitcoin transaction request sits in the memory pool, or “mem pool,” which is kind of like a Bitcoin bus stop. On average, miners take 10 minutes to mine a new block.

Bitcoin miners sort through transactions, processing the passengers that have the most expensive bus tickets (transaction fees) first. Typically, the higher the transaction fee, the faster the transaction is confirmed. At 15 sats/vByte, the cost of sending over 50,000 Bitcoin is very low, indicating that this Bitcoin whale was not in a hurry.

By way of comparison, in late October, a fat-fingered Bitcoin user paid a whopping 8,042 sat/Byte, or 1,136,000 sats to move 3.8 Bitcoin ($65,000).

The process of sorting through transactions in the mempool is relatively straightforward for miners. Contrary to many Bitcoin critics’ beliefs, it is not an energy-hungry process. Ultimately, Bitcoin’s energy consumption comes from block reward issuance, not transactions.

Related: BTC miner CleanSpark scoops up thousands of miners amid ‘distressed markets’

The Bitcoin whale address continued to send over 50,000 Bitcoin to various other addresses on the blockchain. The addresses are not publicly known addresses, such as Binance’s cold storage wallet or the Bitcoin mined in 2009, which was subsequently lost in a landfill in Wales.

Capitulation or profit-taking? Bitcoin whale moves 32K BTC dormant since 2018

What is “usually” an OTC transaction signals change is afoot among 2018 bear market buyers, says Whalemap.

Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $600 million moved for the first time since the last bear market on Oct. 18, analysis has revealed.

In a Twitter thread, monitoring resource Whalemap flagged a transaction involving 32,000 BTC.

Buyer could 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 entity that purchased BTC near the pit of the last bear market appears to have sold.

According to Whalemap, 32,000 coins left their wallet for the first time since December 2018 this week.

“32,000 Bitcoins belonging to a whale wallet moved yesterday. They were dormant since Dec 2018,” the Whalemap team wrote in accompanying commentary.

While it is unknown exactly what was behind the decision, Whalemap was quick to argue an alternative perspective to the classic bear market narrative — major investors capitulating at the lows. The team added:

“Transactions like this usually signify OTC trades, meaning someone is willing to acquire those 32k bitcoins right now.” 

Despite BTC/USD being down over 70% from all-time highs, the 32,000 BTC stash would have made a significant profit, having been purchased at $3,900.

Four years later, they are worth $612 million versus the roughly $124 million paid.

Bitcoin whale outflows annotated chart. Source: Whalemap/ Twitter

Continuing, Whalemap noted that due to the popularity of the 2018 lows as a buy-in point, that 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 that the above transaction is coming from,” it wrote:

“Even right now, 337k of accumulated BTC is still being HODLed in those wallets. A super important area in BTC land to keep ur [eye] on.”

Bitcoin wall inflows annotated chart. Source: Whalemap/ Twitter

Exchange balances accelerate fall

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 spark a ‘huge BTC rally’ as Bitcoin clings to $19K

Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that over the past few days, major exchanges have seen their BTC balances decreasing more per day relative to the previous month than at any time since mid-July.

The 19 trading platforms tracked by Glassnode were down roughly 100,000 BTC in the past 30 days on both Oct. 18 and Oct. 19.

The last date that exchanges ended the day with more BTC than they started with versus a month prior was Oct. 8.

Bitcoin exchange 30-day net position change chart. Source: Glassnode

Exchanges’ total balance was just over 2.34 million BTC as of Oct. 19, down from 2.46 million at the end of September.

Bitcoin exchange balance chart. Source: Glassnode

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

BTC price top warnings emerge as 10K BTC leaves wallet after 9 years

Coins which last moved in the “lawless era” are liquid again, and on-chain data shows such events mark macro BTC price tops.

Bitcoin (BTC) hodlers are asking questions after 10,000 BTC dormant since 2013 suddenly left its wallet.

On-chain data flagged on Aug. 28-29 confirmed a large tranche of Bitcoin had become liquid again after nearly a decade.

“Lawless era” Bitcoin hit the road

Analysts first began to notice curiously high transaction volumes this weekend as 5,000 BTC was included in a block.

Having stayed in the same wallet since 2013, the funds, the owner of which remains unknown, were soon joined by a near identical 5,000 BTC a day later.

In total, 10,000 BTC moved for the first time since 2013, and on-chain sleuths are curious as to the motive of the whale in charge.

Analysis of the destination wallets has concluded that the funds were not sent to anexchange for sale. Instead, they were split among a large number of new wallets.

Considering the reasoning behind the move, Maartunn, a contributor to on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, suggested that privacy may play a part.

Maartunn linked to comments from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, who last week argued that those in ownership of “older” coins, especially in large amounts, likely needed to avoid drawing attention to their now greatly-increased wealth. In 2013, BTC/USD traded at a maximum of around $1,165.

For Ki, these coins were “minted in the lawless era.”

“We uncovered that these whales were highly likely: a) early visionaries that accumulated bitcoin via mining and trading, and b) coins coming from the Cryptsy bitcoin exchange just before it was ‘hacked’ (allegedly stolen customer funds),” a CryptoQuant research piece into old fund movements from Aug. 3 added.

Just six such transactions in Bitcoin history

The transactions were, meanwhile, picked up by the Whale Shadows indicator by Philip Swift, creator of on-chain analytics resource LookIntoBitcoin.

Related: US dollar hits new 20-year high — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Clearly showing the two spikes in older coins occurring, the data prompted discussion over their implication for BTC price action.

As Swift and CryptoQuant showed, previous such spikes marked local highs for BTC/USD throughout Bitcoin’s history.

Bitcoin whale shadows annotated chart. Source: Philip Swift/ Twitter

Other social media commentators even suggested that the funds were tied to the rehabilitation process at defunct exchange Mt. Gox.

As Cointelegraph reported, fears that compensation of creditors would begin this weekend, sparking a significant sell-off, ultimately appeared unfounded.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

The number of crypto billionaires is growing fast, here’s why

As Bitcoin continues to grow in value and crypto companies become widely accepted, leading to the rise of crypto billionaires.

Bitcoin whales: who are the largest BTC holders?

Satoshi Nakamoto has more than 1 million BTC, making him the largest Bitcoin holder. He is followed by the founders of Grayscale and Binance, who together have about the same amount of BTC as Satoshi Nakamoto.

When looking at the largest Bitcoin holders, there are a few parties that stand out. Of course, Satoshi Nakamoto, with a total of 1,100,000 BTC, has more significant holdings than number two and three holders of Bitcoin, namely Grayscale and Binance. These companies have over 600,000 BTC and 400,000 BTC, respectively, numbers that most Bitcoin investors can only dream of.

Behind these top three Bitcoin holders are the cryptocurrency exchanges Bitfinex and OKX, both of which hold over 200,000 BTC. Then, with MicroStrategy and Block.one, there are two more parties that own more than 100,000 BTC. Below the magic limit of 100,000 BTC are a lot of anonymous wallets, but also well-known figures like the Winklevoss brothers.

All these huge amounts are not stored in one wallet, but multiple wallets are used. For example, Satoshi Nakamoto uses about 22,000 wallets for storing his BTC, while Bitfinex and Binance both use a handful of wallets. In total, there are only five wallets where more than 100,000 BTC are stored, totaling more than 4% of the total amount of Bitcoin in these wallets.

It is important to note that a huge amount of BTC allows Bitcoin whales to create a buy or sell wall effect. A buy or sell wall effect is a significant buy or sell order that causes a sharp change in price. With a sell wall, there is a good chance that the price will fall hard, while the opposite can happen with a buy wall.

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Who is the youngest crypto billionaire?

The latest crypto billionaire is Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and founder of FTX Exchange. When the price of Ether (ETH) rose, Vitalik Buterin, the CEO and founder of Ethereum, became the youngest crypto billionaire.

Two familiar faces are fighting the battle for who is the youngest crypto billionaire within the crypto world. There are periods when Vitalik Buterin is the youngest crypto billionaire, but he alternates the title with Sam Bankman-Fried. Both men are more than two years apart in terms of age, with Bankman-Fried being the older of the two. However, age is not the most important factor, but the popularity and value of ETH is the deciding factor.

When the price of ETH rises, the value of Vitalik’s assets rises with it. This is because Vitalik Buterin owns over 290,000 ETH, which is by far the largest portion of his assets. However, when the price falls, Vitalik is no longer a billionaire. With a favorable ETH price, Vitalik is the title holder, but otherwise, the title of the youngest crypto billionaire is for Sam Bankman-Fried.

The owner of FTX Exchange has a wealth of over $22 billion. The speed at which Sam is growing his money has not only earned him the title of youngest crypto billionaire, but he has also become the fastest billionaire. This title was previously held by Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta. Of course, Sam Bankman-Fried himself also owns the necessary ETH tokens and other altcoins, which makes his assets worth a lot more.

Who is the richest crypto billionaire?

The CEO and founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, is the richest crypto billionaire. He has assets of over 20 billion and is among the richest people on earth.

The richest crypto billionaire is Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, who is also known as CZ. He is said to own over 70% of Binance’s shares, and these shares represent quite a bit of value. Indeed, Binance is one of the crypto companies that owns a huge amount of BTC, as well as keeping the crypto millionaire dream of many crypto investors alive by providing millions of people with the ability to trade and invest in Bitcoin and altcoins.

In addition to its stake in Binance, CZ himself has Bitcoin in his investment portfolio. However, BTC is not the only cryptocurrency that CZ owns; he also privately holds a lot of BNB Coin (BNB). Following CZ on the list of richest crypto billionaires are Sam Bankman-Fried and Brian Armstrong, who are the founders of FTX Exchange and Coinbase, respectively. So, offering services that meet the needs of people in the crypto industry can be a profitable business.

In addition to these crypto exchange founders, there is one more possible billionaire, Satoshi Nakamoto, who seems to be the hodler of Bitcoin. With a total of 1.1 million BTC, Satoshi holds by far the most Bitcoin. Whether this huge amount of Bitcoin would be enough to depose CZ from Binance is still up for debate.

Not only is Binance also one of the parties that hold the most Bitcoin, but CZ’s total assets are also substantial. For instance, his wealth comes close to Mark Zuckerberg and Satoshi Nakamoto.

How many crypto billionaires are there?

In total, there are 19 crypto billionaires, but the future will tell if Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin are also among this group of wealthy crypto investors.

To determine what a crypto billionaire is, it is helpful to first define this term. A crypto billionaire may have earned wealth by directly investing in cryptocurrencies or crypto-related companies. The crypto market is relatively young, so there is also a chance that crypto billionaires have become so wealthy through a combination of both possibilities. Therefore, we do not distinguish between billionaires as long as they have earned their wealth through the crypto world.

Of these 19 crypto billionaires, almost all of them have earned their wealth from Bitcoin investments or their own blockchain-related companies. For example, you can find Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer of OpenSea, Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb of Ripple and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase among the 19 billionaires. Vitalik Buterin, perhaps the twentieth crypto billionaire, could be added to the list, but his wealth fluctuates too much to be structurally included.

Of the 19 wealthy crypto investors, as many as 16 have United States passports. Because the identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is unknown, no one cannot determine if there is another seventeenth American crypto billionaire on the globe. If the unknown creator of Bitcoin turns out to be one person, then, of course, they also belong on the crypto billionaire list.

Why are crypto billionaires rising every year?

The adoption of the crypto market is increasing, which means that more money is going to various crypto projects. Due to the wealth potential, people invest in cryptocurrencies, leading to the rise of billionaires.

Many people have started investing in crypto because of the great success stories that can be found all over the internet. From cryptocurrency investors, who bought Bitcoin (BTC) worth tens and hundreds of dollars and chose hodl for years, to crypto whales who started a crypto-related business are among the key crypto enthusiasts. 

It is feasible to become a crypto whale by trading well, building a business, investing well or already having a decent fortune, so that being significantly active in the crypto market with large corporations is possible. The crypto market is growing and every day, there are many opportunities for crypto investors and crypto whales to grow their assets and become crypto billionaires.

The crypto market is a very volatile market, however, which brings with it inevitable risks and opportunities. Despite this, money is finding its way to the many new crypto companies and relatively young companies developing decentralized applications (DApps). These DApps focus on Web3, the evolution of the existing World Wide Web.

Bitcoin whales still ‘hibernating’ as BTC price nears $21K

Bitcoin price recovers 11% from the week’s lows as one trader targets $21,700 next.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $21,000 for the first time in several days on July 15 as markets enjoyed what one trader called “summer relief.”

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Altcoin rebound eyed as BTC price adds 11%

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD grinding higher overnight to just tap the $21,000 mark on Bitstamp on the day.

A noticeable change of tact had set in after initial losses on the back of forty-year highs for the United States’ Consumer Price Index (CPI). Versus the July 13 lows, BTC/USD was thus up 11%.

“Summer relief time,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe summarized.

Popular trader Crypto Tony was also in the mood for modest optimism on short timeframes, eyeing a move to $21,700 for profit-taking.

“If we get this, then Alts can continue to enjoy a nice pump and relief rally,” he added in a further tweet.

Many major altcoins had responded well to the uptick in BTC price action, with Ether (ETH) making a noticeable rebound to cap over 12% daily gains.

Others in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap also fared well, with only Solana (SOL) nonetheless managing to beat ETH over the past 24 hours.

ETH/USD thus succeeded in avoiding a return below the psychologically significant $1,000 level.

ETH/USD 1-hour candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

Whales “waiting for moment to wake up”

Meanwhile, on-chain data suggested that the largest Bitcoin hodlers were in no mood to act at current prices.

Related: Bitcoin price spikes to $20K as whale-bought BTC confirms support

In a Twitter thread on July 14, BlockTrends analyst Caue Oliveira highlighted what he described as “hibernation” continuing among whale wallets.

“Whales remain in hibernation, waiting for the right moment to wake up,” he observed.

“Institutional movements, or commonly called “whale activity” can be tracked based on the transaction volume moved over a short period of time, both denominated in BTC and USD.”

An accompanying chart showed a distinct lack of large-volume transactions on the network in recent months, with only the Terra LUNA blowout causing a temporary trend break.

“Here we have a clear view of the low institutional activity, almost non-existent after the month of May, which was briefly awakened during the LUNA crash but which returned to hibernation,” Oliveira added.

Bitcoin spent output value bands annotated chart. Source: Caue Oliveira/ Twitter

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.