The number of addresses holding over 1.000 bitcoins (worth around $ 37,5 million at current price) is now at 2.334, a new all-time high, after the number had dropped 3,7% to 2.221 at the end of December. unit. This is an indication that the "whales" (the big holders of bitcoin) continued to buy bitcoin during the bullish phase, helping to push the price up.
The number of Bitcoin whales continues to increase
According to the on-chain data site Glassnode, the 2.334 addresses each holding more than 1.000 bitcoins represent a gain of more than 30% compared to the end of 2017, the previous peak of the cryptocurrency market.
This parameter has been increasing since mid-October 2020, but has suffered a temporary decline of 4% between 18 December and 26 December. The decline and renewed rise at the end of December shows relatively little interest in profit-taking by these large holders, even though nearly all holdings are currently in profit.
BitInfoCharts data also shows that there are 6.633 addresses holding bitcoins worth more than $ 10.000.000 and, according to a market summary contained in the December 2020 cryptocurrency exchange Kraken Outlook report, the bitcoin addresses with more than 100 bitcoins accumulated another 47.500 bitcoins (currently worth $ 1,8 billion) throughout December due to rising prices.
The weight of institutions in the current Bitcoin bull run
The so-called "Bitcoin Rich List" reflects the growing institutional involvement in the bitcoin market since early 2020. Another sign of this is the rapidly growing volumes and open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a derivatives exchange focused on institutions.
At press time, the price of bitcoin is around $ 40.000, down from the high of $ 41.529 reached for the first time ever on January 8 - here quotation in real time. The total value of the entire cryptocurrency market also crossed the $ 1 trillion mark on Wednesday.
While the 2017 bitcoin rally was largely driven by enthusiasm in retail, the 2020 rally was driven primarily by institutions. The accelerated rush of large institutional investors publicly talking about investing in bitcoin as an asset has not only provided validation of bitcoin's role in investor portfolios; it also attracted the attention of other investors.
This self-strengthening cycle is likely to continue into 2021, especially given growing uncertainty over currencies and inflation. The market capitalization of Bitcoin is currently in eighth place on the list of assets reported on the analysis site Assetdash, following the stocks of Tesla (TSLA), Facebook (FB) and Amazon (AMZN), among others.
