A whopping 30,000 BTC was transferred to an unknown wallet in the past week, leaving many investors wondering about the current outlook regarding bitcoin. When large sums go into cold storage, it reduces selling pressure as it often signals that whales and institutional investors are expecting the price to rise and are opting for self-custody.
Massive exodus of BTC to cold storage
Data from CoinGlass shows that nearly 30,000 BTC have been delisted from exchanges in the past week. Bitcoin is currently trading around $26,000, which equates to over $780 million being held in cold storage.
The majority of this activity came from Binance, which saw a net change of 11,457 BTC in its reserves. Coinbase, Bitfinex, and Gemini also saw a net outflow of 4,455 BTC, 2,808 BTC, and 6,004 BTC, respectively. In contrast, crypto exchange OKEx had moved 2,149 BTC to its exchange.
Whale Alert’s on-chain whale movement alert this week also showed various instances of BTC movement from crypto exchanges to unknown wallets:
🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 5,140 #B T c (134,268,844 USD) transferred from #bybit to unknown wallet
– Whale Alert (@whale_alert) 25 August 2023
🚨 🚨 🚨 2,910 #B T c (76,010,381 USD) transferred from unknown wallet #coinbase
– Whale Alert (@whale_alert) 24 August 2023
4,000 #B T c (106,039,171 USD) transferred from #Bitfinex to unknown wallet
– Whale Alert (@whale_alert) 24 August 2023
Anonymous wallets generally mean going into cold storage, which refers to any method of storing crypto offline. Investors use cold wallets to hold bitcoin for long periods of time as a way of storing their assets.
For many long-term holders, this is a safer option than holding large amounts of crypto on an exchange, which may carry a higher risk of hack or scam.
BTC price above $26,000 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
How does this bullishness bode for the price of bitcoin?
Bitcoin shelving points to a bullish outlook for serious investors. This has reduced the selling pressure as the amount of BTC available for sale on the exchanges has become smaller. According to the economic principles of supply and demand, lower supply leads to higher prices.
While it is not entirely clear what causes this contamination, the timing of this movement in cold storage is also noteworthy. The SEC’s decision on spot bitcoin ETF applications is imminent, and many believe the approval will propel bitcoin’s price higher. However, the regulator can still delay applications for up to 240 days.
Bitcoin price has declined significantly over the past month as the market reacted to various news. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at $26,000 and is down 11.83% over the past month but up 0.42% on the 7-day time frame. This suggests that the move to cold storage hasn’t made a significant impact, as the bitcoin price is still struggling to recover.
Featured Image from iStock, Chart from Tradingview.com
source: www.newsbtc.com
