$424 Million BTC in Hours: What’s Happening?

Blockchain data tracker Whale Alert recently reported a significant movement of $424 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) across three separate transactions during the last 24 hours.

The three transactions involved a total of 4,382 BTC being moved between unknown wallets and exchanges. There are: two transactions of 1,875 BTC worth $180,814,471 and 1,808 BTC worth $176,391,924 transferred between unknown wallets; 699 BTC worth $68,760,574 transferred from Kraken to Bitfinex.

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While the specific intent of these transactions is unknown, there are several probable explanations.

Large holders, also known as whales, may be shifting their assets in anticipation of a market move. Transactions involving unknown wallets could be internal movements between whale wallets or over-the-counter (OTC) deals.

Bitcoin price action

BTC continues to bore traders with sluggish trading below $100,000. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 1.97% in the last 24 hours to $96,082.

Bitcoin broke above $100,000 on Friday, reaching highs of $100,235 following a mixed U.S. jobs report that showed unemployment was down but job creation slowed in the world’s largest economy.

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Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies and U.S. equities, surged last year on the Fed’s decision to eventually lower borrowing costs. Because Bitcoin and stocks are riskier assets, they normally perform better in a climate with low interest rates. Now the rally has retreated as demand cools.

According to CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, demand growth has slowed since early December, as have Bitcoin’s gains, suggesting that demand growth might be needed to trigger Bitcoin’s next rally.

According to Glassnode, the seven-day average funding rate has declined since late January, now at 0.004%, which is 85% lower than the December peak of 0.026%. This implies that demand for leveraged longs is fading as speculative appetite weakens. Glassnode added that without renewed leverage, price action may stay choppy or corrective.