According to data from on-chain and social metrics crypto platform Santiment, crowd interest in buying the dip has hit a 6-week high as many altcoins dropped back to early March levels. Most notably, whales have been accumulating Bitcoin, taking advantage of panic-stricken retail which has been dumping holdings since late September.
“The number of bitcoin addresses has been increasing since the Russia—Ukranian war began.” Santiment tweeted on Thursday. So far, the platform has mapped out 1629 shark and whale addresses holding between 10 to 100k BTC “that are either new or have returned to the millionaire status.”
Earlier on, Santiment had noted that whales took advantage of the recent downswing to scoop up over 40,000 BTC worth $1.6B. Further, addresses with 10k to 100k BTC increased their holdings by nearly 2% while prices dropped from $39,900 to $38,200.
Whereas whales, especially in the 10k to 100k Bitcoin range can spell catastrophe for price when they begin to dump, their combined strength is vital in buoying up prices. On-chain statistics showed that whale holdings rose dramatically in September last year, leading to a significant increase in price in November.
Using the whale analogy, it can be important to imagine the crypto market as an ocean. Whales can cause a stormy wave that has a huge effect on the entire crypto market which is why this metric is an important one to take note of, even for other asset investors.
Ethereum, which is currently trading at $2,957 has also seen a surge in the number of daily active addresses interacting on the network with prices declining. “This has created an upward trend and a bullish divergence. Utility growing while price drops is a strong case for prices turning positive” Santiment wrote Wednesday.
Technically, after falling off the cliff for most of the week, Bitcoin seems to have found some reprieve around the $38k support after buy orders absorbed all the sell liquidity along that area.
On Wednesday, the price bounced off of that support as traders opened long positions based on trendline support which projects a price surge to the $52,000 area. A series of liquidations amounting to over $1 billion on April 25 and 26 seem to have also slowed the selling pressure based on data from Coinglass.
Furthermore, the price has confirmed a bullish divergence on the RSI indicator on the daily timeframe signaling a bullish run in the short term. According to Pseudonymous Twitter user Rekt Capital, Bitcoin is currently in the accumulation phase- “a densely packed area that has historically seen a lot of transacted volume on the buy side” which is why traders should pay close attention to price action this week.