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Whales with 100+ BTC Hit 17-Month High, Buying Bitcoin by the Minute
- Adam Back reports whales buying large amounts of BTC since OG’s dip below US$58K.
- In August, large holders accumulated over 133,300 BTC from smaller traders.
- Whale wallets increased by 283, reaching a 17-month high of 16,120 such wallets.
- 13 of the top 25 new ETF launches in 2024 are Bitcoin or Ethereum-related, underscoring institutional confidence.
While the crypto market continues its sideways action, one popular activity is to go whale watching. Cypherpunk and CEO/ Co-founder of Blockstream, Adam Back, reports that whales are scooping up Bitcoin at impressive rates, after the recent dip to US$58K:
Whales back buying 450btc/day every minute all day long, since dip on 28th. Same as Bitcoin mined per day. Go ahead sell them cheap corn.
Adam Back Related: Crypto Voters Lean Towards Trump in the Upcoming Election, New Poll Reveals
This matches data from analytics platform Santiment who said that in August whales and sharks have added more than 133,300 Bitcoin – from smaller traders who handed over their holdings:
Over the past month, wallets with 10-10K BTC have collectively accumulated 133.3K more coins while smaller traders continue to impatiently drop their holdings to them.
Santiment 
Market Moves Against Expectations, While Small Traders Sell to Whales
Meanwhile, Bitcoin whale wallets holding at least 100 BTC have increased by 283 in just one month, reaching a 17-month high with 16,120 such wallets now on the network, despite disappointing prices for retail traders, Santiment said in a post.
In their August report, they double down on that observation, showing that frustrated and “apathetic” traders are capitulating while whales are eagerly buying – which confirms the old adage:
Frustration and impatience often correlates with market bottoms because prices historically move the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations.
Santiment ETFs Take Top 4 Spot of All Newly Launched Funds
While retail traders may be feeling the pinch from stagnant crypto prices, the increase in Bitcoin whale wallets suggests robust institutional confidence in the market.
This is further evidenced by the ETF industry, where a significant portion of new launches this year involve crypto.
Related: First-Ever AI-to-AI Crypto Transaction Happens on Coinbase Platform Base
Remarkably, as Neta Geraci, the founder of the ETF Institute, writes, 13 out of the top 25 ETF launches in 2024 are related to Bitcoin or Ethereum, with the top four being spot Bitcoin ETFs out of around 400 new funds.
That’s a whopping US$35.1 billion (AU$51.7 billion) IBIT, FBTC, ARKB and BITB have seen in YTD flows, dwarfing the Global X Russell 2000 ETF and PGIM Ultra Short Municipal Bond ETF – which rank just ahead of BlackRock’s Ethereum fund ETHA.
Author
Aaron Feuerstein
Aaron Feuerstein is a freelance writer based in Melbourne. His focus is on decentralised finance and the regulatory space surrounding blockchain. He holds a Master's in Accounting. When he is not studying the latest legal case, he enjoys his time as a modest but eager hobby cook.
