New whale wallets now hold nearly 2M Bitcoin, up 813% YTD

The latest accumulation stage for Bitcoin (BTC) left 1.97M coins in newly created whale-sized wallets. The transfer of holdings signals a shift in the attitude toward BTC. The accumulation to new wallets follows a previous peak in long-term holders. 

Bitcoin (BTC) holding is not only for ancient whales. New wallets were also active in the past weeks, accumulating a total of 1.97M coins. The accumulation was rapid, signaling a shift in behaviors while BTC was relatively close to its all-time high.

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, noted that the balance of BTC in wallets younger than 155 days surged by more than 813% in the year to date, with growth accelerating in the past month. In a thread on X, Ju pointed out the new whale wallets altered the holding structure of BTC and may affect its future price trajectory. 

New whale wallets now hold 1.97M #Bitcoin.

Each has over 1K BTC, average coin age under 155 days, excluding exchange and miner wallets, likely custodial.

Their BTC balance surged 813% YTD, taking up 9.3% of the total supply, valued at $132B today. pic.twitter.com/pxq0tcqMuW

— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) October 16, 2024

The uptick in new wallet ownership is not only due to old wallet rollovers for security purposes. In fact, the picture may represent the long-awaited, mass institutional inflow into BTC. The new addresses also have a different format and signature, tracking their coins to new acquisitions. 

The inflow of whales happened during the period of sideways trading for BTC, when the leading coin ranged between $50,000 and $64,000. After the accumulation, BTC broke out above $68,000, reaching a dominance of 57.6%.

Whales are also successfully buying up all-new BTC production. After the halving, only 450 new BTC per day are available. Whale accumulation slowed down in the summer of 2024, leaving miners to hold for a while. Now, the metric of apparent demand is in the green again, making spot BTC even more scarce. According to Ju, the metric is mostly bullish. However, BTC whales have become more sophisticated and some are trading spot BTC as a tool for short-term gains. 

ETF buying drives new wallet creation

The biggest effect came from ETF buyers, which are on track to acquire more than $1B worth of BTC for the third week of October. ETF buying reached $920M since the start of the week, based on wallets tracked by Arkham Intelligence. In 2024, those new whales acquired an additional 8.4% of Bitcoin’s total supply. ETFs alone are not sufficient to explain the growth, as some of the accumulation may also come from institutions. Whale wallets in this case are all holdings above 1,000 BTC held in one address. 

The new holdings took more coins off the market, adding to more than 16B held in long-term storage, which also include miner reserves above 2M BTC. Whale accumulation is seen as an indicator of market lows and a preparation for the bull market. 

At this point, accumulation happened while BTC was within a small distance of its all-time high. This cycle, whales kept accumulating even relatively small dips, as there was no deep drawdown of more than 70%. 

BTC rebuilds leveraged positions

BTC is still in the buying and accumulation stage based on the Rainbow chart, which is also reflected by investor behaviors. Spot whale buyers also helped shift the BTC sentiment into ‘greed’ territory based on the crypto fear and greed index. 

BTC took its usual time to rebuild leveraged positions. Open interest is now back to the levels from the end of July, at more than $21B. The leveraged positions crashed after August 5, with one of the biggest drawdowns for the year. 

In the short term, the accumulation of long and short positions may determine the price action. Spot market whales are also capable of affecting sentiment while shaking out some coins from the hands of retail buyers. 

Spot BTC is also held for the long term, with only a small uptick for on-chain transactions. BTC is now too valuable to use for payments, and holders are seeking ways to use their coins for passive gains while retaining custody.