The Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday for another interest rate hike wash again enough reason to panic in crypto land. The bitcoin (BTC) price was also not unaffected. Bitcoin’s price dropped below $19,000 again, but some large bitcoin holders, or “whales,” took advantage of the discount.
Bitcoin whales strike
With the announcement of the new rate hike by the Fed in the US, crypto prices largely endured sharp declines on Wednesday. However, many bitcoin accumulation transactions were observed during this ‘dip’. This means that large bitcoin holders buy more aggressively. This data was announced by Whale Alerta platform that observes and analyzes crypto transactions.
Individuals or organizations that own massive amounts of cryptocurrencies are also known as whales. These whales hold a minimum of $10 million worth of bitcoin and usually hold it for an extended period of time.
Since the news about the interest rate hike, more than 166 thousand bitcoins have been sent from exchanges to private wallets. These transactions together were worth more than $3 billion dollars.
Bitcoin whale behavior
The behavior of crypto whales and their large trades is often an interesting indicator. When whales send large amounts of crypto to an exchange from a private wallet, they often do so with the intention of selling. This can be an indicator of a possible price drop.
Whales never keep their crypto on exchanges for an extended period of time. Exchange wallets are very vulnerable compared to the relatively safe hardware wallet. It is therefore unlikely that a crypto whale will send his or her cryptocurrencies to an exchange with the intention of keeping them there. The main reason for such behavior is to sell crypto for currency or for other cryptocurrencies.
At a outflow however, there is more reason to be optimistic about large amounts of crypto from exchanges to private wallets. This could mean that major crypto holders have confidence in the market and therefore secure their crypto on hardware wallets.
