Bitcoin Whales Accumulated $1.5 Billion in BTC Amid Panic Selling

Bitcoin whales have been taking advantage of the flagship cryptocurrency’s recent price dip to keep on accumulating BTC after short-term holders moved nearly $4 billion in the cryptocurrency to exchanges.

According to CryptoQuant analyst Cauê Oliveira, Bitcoin whales took advantage of the “panic selling” to accumulate, with 16,000 BTC worth nearly $1.5 billion entered whale reserves in a single day after short-term holders’ sales.

In a post, the analyst noted that the figure was “reflected in institutional addresses on the network” but suggested more BTC was accumulated, as the funds that weren’t withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges and remain in users’ accounts aren’t counted.

Per his words, the whale accumulation hasn’t been sufficient to demonstrate a “more widespread buy-the-dip” pattern,” which he said remains concentrated among institutional investors.

Source: CryptoQuant

The price of Bitcoin has surged by more than 35% over the past month to now trade near the $97,000 mark, yet over the past week it dipped from a near $100,000 all-time high to a low just above the $91,000 level.

As reported, BTC’s price rise came after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the US presidential elections, and helped cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital’s Bitcoin fund achieve a lifetime return of over 131,000%.

In the post, Pantera Capital’s CEO Dan Morehead shared an email forecasting back in July 2013, when Bitcoin was trading at $65, that the “bitcoin washout happened” and predicting the price of the cryptocurrency would surge over time.

The email notes he was going to “buy 30,000 bitcoins” with his own personal money at a time in which the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization was around $740 million. Given the small size of the cryptocurrency market at the time, Morehead noted that in 2013-15, the fund “bought 2% of the world’s bitcoins.”

To Morehead, buying Bitcoin at the time was like “buying gold in 1000 B.C.” as then “99% of the financial wealth has yet to address bitcoin.” He noted that the industry has made progress and now believes 95% of the financial wealth “has yet to put their full-sized position on.”

Featured image via Unsplash.