Large Bitcoin holders are back to buying huge amounts of the cryptocurrency as its price dove toward the end of 2024 following a record six-figure high, according to a Blocktrends analyst.
More than 34,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth about $3.2 billion have been “accumulated by institutional investors, providing buying pressure for the current recovery in Bitcoin,” Blocktrends head of research Cauê Oliveira wrote in a Jan. 8 CryptoQuant post.
Oliveira said the buyup came after wallets holding between 1,000 to 10,000 BTC dumped 79,000 BTC in the week after Dec. 21, days after it hit a peak of over $108,000 on Dec. 17 amid the US Federal Reserve interest rate cut, which “ended up generating a 15% correction.”
He added that “large players took advantage of the consolidation” and started making big trades broken down into multiple smaller orders, accumulating Bitcoin with a price below $95,000.
Bitcoin seven-day balance change has flipped positive after a nearly 80,000 BTC sell-off in late December. Source: CryptoQuant
Bitcoin was trading at around $94,900 at the time of writing, down about 2.3% on the day alongside the wider crypto market as US jobs and economic data dashed hopes of further interest rate cuts at the end of January.
Bitfinex analysts said in a Jan. 6 market note that sell-side liquidity in Bitcoin markets is “shrinking at a rapid pace,” and the worst of the downward pressure on its price has likely passed.
Related: US Fed money printing could spur Bitcoin rally in Q1 2025 — Hayes
Analysts, however, are predicting that Bitcoin could be set for a record rally this year, buoyed by expected pro-crypto policies from incoming US President-elect Donald Trump and nation-state adoption of Bitcoin.
Fidelity Digital Assets research analyst Matt Hogan wrote in a Jan. 7 paper that the firm anticipates “more nation-states, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and government treasuries will look to establish strategic positions in Bitcoin.”
Blockware analysts said late last month that a US Bitcoin reserve could, in the worst case, push its price to over $150,000, while a best-case scenario would see the cryptocurrency rise to over $400,000.
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