Bitcoin whales unload over $2 bln in BTC – Why?

Journalist

Posted: November 14, 2023

• Bitcoin whales have begun to sell their holdings.
• The coin’s price has become less volatile in the past two weeks.

In a significant shift in market sentiment, Bitcoin [BTC] whales have initiated coin distribution, signaling an intention to secure profits amidst recent price consolidation. 

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), pseudonymous crypto analyst Ali Charts noted that over the past week, holders of 100 to 10,000 BTCs have collectively sold around 60,000 BTC, equivalent to about $2.22 billion at current market value.

#Bitcoin whales have been booking profits, selling
or redistributing around 60,000 $BTC over the past week, worth roughly $2.22 billion. pic.twitter.com/xmzHGXs5gu

— Ali (@ali_charts) November 13, 2023

The market has grown increasingly less volatile in the past few weeks 

When the market rally commenced in October, the significant surge in BTC’s value caused its price to be prone to swings. 

In a report dated 20th October, pseudonymous CryptoQuant analyst Mignolet found that BTC recorded a notable uptick in the spent outputs of its short-term holders (3-6 months) on 19th October as over 125,000 dormant BTC coins changed addresses on that day.

Source: CryptoQuant

Generally, this kind of sudden coin movement contributes to increased volatility in the BTC market. This led the analyst to opine, “We might see significant volatility soon.”

BTC volatility markers on the daily chart confirmed Mignolet’s position as they spent the rest of October chasing new highs. 

However, in the past few weeks, these markers have trended downwards. It suggests a decline in price volatility as BTC stagnates under $37,000. 

For example, the coin’s Average True Range (ATR) – which measures market volatility by calculating the average range between high and low prices over a specified number of periods – has dropped by 2% since 1st November. 

When this indicator experiences a decline, it suggests that the price of an asset is moving less erratically and is more likely to stay within a certain range. At press time, BTC’s ATR was 1042.54.

Likewise, in the last two weeks, there has been a gradual reduction in the gap between the upper and lower bands of BTC’s Bollinger Bands indicator. 

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The narrowing of the distance between these two bands suggests that BTC’s price is becoming less volatile. This position was further confirmed by the Bollinger Bandwidth (BBW) indicator. The indicator declined by 68% in the last 14 days. 

As of this writing, the coin’s BBW was 0.12. On 1st November, it was 0.37. 

Source: BTC/USDT on TradingView