Bitcoin Shark And Whale Wallets Reach Historic Highs As BTC Holders Accumulate

Despite the bear market that maims the cryptocurrency industry, Bitcoin sharks and whales reached historic highs as investors with deep pockets continue to accumulate the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization.

The number of Bitcoin whales (accounts that hold at least 1,000 BTCs) and sharks (accounts with at least 10 to 500 BTCs) have seen a historic spike since February 2022, according to Santiment, a behavior analytics platform for cryptocurrencies.

The substantial spike in the number of shark and whale wallets resulted in a significant 8.12% increase or an additional 11,806 more addresses over the past 20 months.

"Since February 2022, there has been a historic rise in shark and whale wallets holding at least 10 $BTC. In the past 20 months, since this accumulation of new large wallets began, 11,806 more addresses have met this threshold, an 8.12% total increase," Santiment said in a tweet.

The trend underlines the positive outlook and strong confidence of large stakeholders in the world's first-ever crypto asset, especially since Bitcoin trading consists of 11% of whales and other large investors and 89% of retail investors.

An analysis by data science company IntoTheBlock showed that large transactions taking place in the market highlight an active investment base, underlining that transactions worth $100,000 and more cumulatively amounted to nearly $37 billion.

Two large Bitcoin transactions that took place over the weekend collectively amounted to over $100 million.

The first one moved 2,818 BTC, worth around $75.8 million, from an unknown wallet to Coinbase. The second transaction involved the movement of 1,630 BTC, worth approximately $43.8 million, from ByBit to an unknown wallet.

The last time the market recorded similar numbers of large Bitcoin holdings was in 2019, suggesting investors' renewed interest despite the bear market.

Amid the surge in interest, Bitcoin was trading in the green zone at $27,759.75 as of 7:46 a.m. ET Monday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 181.17% at $13.69 billion – representing a 3.2% surge over the past 24 hours and a 0.60% gain in the last seven days.

Latest data from CoinMarketCap shows Bitcoin's total circulating supply stands at 19.52 million tokens, with its value up by 3.24% at a $5419.14 billion market cap.