‘Something is happening’ — Bitcoin hodlers scooped $23B in the past 30 days

Reported by Cointelegraph: Onchain activity suggests that Bitcoin whales have accumulated BTC over the past month amid a market slump.

Bitcoin “permanent holder addresses” have accumulated nearly $23 billion of the asset over the past month, according to onchain data.

In a post on X on Aug. 7, CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju exclaimed, “I’m pretty sure something is happening behind the scenes.”

The comment came in reference to a recent spike in 30-day demand change for permanent Bitcoin holders.

Around $22.8 billion worth, or 404,448 BTC, has moved to permanent holder addresses over the past 30 days, “and it’s clearly accumulation,” said Ki.

He predicted that within a year, some entities, such as TradFi institutions, companies, governments or others, “will announce that they’ve acquired Bitcoin in Q3 2024,” adding:

“And retail investors will regret not buying it because they were worried about the German govt selling, Mt. Gox, or whatever macroeconomic shit was going on.”
In a separate X post on Aug. 7, Ki Young added another couple of bullish factors, such as Bitcoin miner activity.

“Miner capitulation is nearly over,” he said, adding that hashrate is nearing all-time highs and United States mining costs are around $43,000 per coin, so hashrate is likely to remain stable unless prices dip below this level.

“Retail investors are mostly absent, similar to mid-2020,” he said, adding that there has been “reduced old whale activity” with long-term holders of over three years selling between March and June but “no significant selling pressure from old whales at this time.”

“Based on this data, I believe the bull market is still intact. If the market doesn’t recover in two weeks, I’ll reconsider. I follow smart money, so if I’m wrong, it means the new whales are either misguided or underestimated the macro environment.”

In late July, he observed the flows to permanent holder addresses such as exchange-traded funds, stating that not all remaining BTC is in custody wallets, but “whales are clearly accumulating, and it’s an unprecedented level.”

The accumulation appears to have increased since the market slump on Aug. 5, which sent BTC prices crashing to $49,800, according to Cointelegraph.

The asset has recovered 14% since then to reclaim $57,000 on Aug. 6. Moreover, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has moved from extreme fear to fear, indicating a slight improvement in sentiment.