Bitcoin Ownership Continues to Increase Despite Crypto Market Being Sluggish

Bitcoin whale adds to their holdings during the bear market. (Photo; Doc. CoinCentral)

JAKARTA - The latest data from market intelligence platform, Santiment, reveals a historic surge in the number of large wallets holding Bitcoin (BTC), known as sharks and whales, aka "sharks" and "whales."

According to Santiment, the number of entities with at least 10 BTC has been steadily increasing since the beginning of 2022, when the crypto market experienced an initial price drop.

Since February 2022, there has been a historic increase in the number of shark and whale wallets holding a minimum of 10 BTC. In the last 20 months, since this massive wallet accumulation began, an additional 11,806 addresses have reached this threshold, experiencing a total increase of 8.12%.

It is worth noting that in the crypto world, “sharks” and “whales” are terms that refer to large holders of Bitcoin, who have the potential to influence the crypto market.

Santiment also noted that there is increasing talk among traders and investors about inflation and a crypto bear market, although the probability of price increases is actually higher.

Topics that are increasingly being discussed include keywords like “inflation” and “bear market,” indicating that many people are anticipating a negative trend in the crypto market. This is somewhat ironic because as more traders become bearish, the probability of price increases actually gets higher.

Santiment has also observed a shift in attention to precious metals such as gold and silver, which have managed to outperform cryptocurrencies in recent times. This occurred during a period when global attention was focused on conflicts, such as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the war between Russia and Ukraine. At that time, gold and silver increased in value, while cryptocurrencies remained stable.