Chainalysis: Bitcoin whales add 142,000 BTC over a week

Assets of investors holding more than 1,000 BTC reached a fresh high for 2021. Over the course of the week, whales increased their holdings by a total of 142,000 BTC. The findings appear in the report from Chainalysis.

“They [the whales] quickly increased their reserves at the start of the year, adding 185,000 BTC by early February. Then they bought and sold in line with price cycles. Then, from October 25, over the course of a week they replenished assets by 142,000 BTC,” the analysts noted.

The chart above shows the perception of the cryptocurrency as digital gold, and that institutions are focused on its long-term price prospects, the analysts say. On the other hand, “Bitcoin’s use has not reached the mining-difficulty level of Ethereum or other Layer 1 assets”.

“There is no doubt that crypto is becoming mainstream, and the industry comprises both native and traditional companies. There are Bitcoin ETFs currently. DeFi and NFT demonstrate new use cases. The outlines of Web 3.0 are becoming clearer.”

Analysts say that Bitcoin should be used not only as “capital for Web 3.0,” but also as a utility “in more innovative areas of the crypto industry”.

According to the ForkLog October report, the number of addresses with a balance of 0.01 BTC or more has approached the historical high reached in April at 9,161,934.

The metric for addresses holding at least 0.1 BTC at the start of October hit a new high of 3,258,532. The previous peak was recorded on 22 April (3,258,100).

Thus, cryptocurrency is gaining broad uptake — demand for Bitcoin is being driven not only by whales but also by retail investors. The number of the latter continues to rise.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that weekly inflows into cryptocurrency funds in October reached a record $1.47 billion.

As noted previously, Chainalysis replenished its reserves with a certain amount of bitcoins.

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