Whales Have Been Accumulating BTC; Crypto Investors Earned Big in 2021

Chart of the Day





On Thursday, the broader crypto market lost some of its recovery steam after the U.S. Federal Reserve revealed that the 50 basis points interest rates increment in May "will be on the table". A hawkish monetary policy has, thus far, provided strong headwinds for risky assets. As a result, BTC briefly flirted with the $43k level before retracing back to the $40k mark, erasing all of its past days' gains in the process. As of the time of writing, BTC is consolidating above the $40k level after posting up a 2.6% loss in the past 24 hours. The previous support near the $41k level was also overturned into an overhead resistance overnight. If it fails to clear said $41k resistance, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap will likely see further downside corrections to the $39.2k to $40k zone.

Despite these short-term pains, several key on-chain metrics paint a positive road ahead. A chart detailing BTC holding data suggests that whales (entities with more than 1000 BTC in their holdings) have been accumulating BTC for a month now. The change in their holdings is rapidly approaching levels last seen in late January of this year, slightly after the market bottomed out. 

Within the altcoin market, ETH has shed more than 3% of its market value in a single day, and is currently trading precariously above the $3,000 psychological barrier. Other major altcoins are also all submerged in a sea of red, with NEAR leading the altcoins' downward correction. In some better news, Aave V3, an improved version of the money market Aave, has seen its TVL skyrocket in recent times after the launch of its liquidity mining program on Avalanche. 







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According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, crypto investors have enjoyed a stellar year. In fact, said crypto investors took home about $162.7 billion in realised gains in 2021, boasting a staggering 400% increase from the previous year. Among these crypto investors, U.S. investors netted a significant 27% of the total gains (amounting to approximately $47 billion). Chainalysis' report also noted that a vast majority (approximately 93%) of the revenue was made in BTC and ETH.