Crypto bargains: How to see what crypto whales are buying?
While the market is in tatters, whales appear to still be actively buying certain cryptos
Contents
- Doubling down on the big two
- What crypto are whales buying: Apecoin (APE)
- Cardano (ADA)
- The stablecoin race
- Final thoughts
- FAQs
Crypto whales, the elite group of individuals holding vast amounts of cryptocurrencies, are starting to see the bearish market as an opportunity to purchase crypto bargains.
Investors often look towards whales as signs for wider market trends. In fact, the term whale originates from them disturbing the waters that the smaller fish investors swim in.
But these trends can change on a daily basis, so investors will have to watch out before they make any long-term commitments.
Doubling down on the big two
For the first time since July 2021, bitcoin dipped below the $30,000 mark on 8 May 2022. But according to some, this has not stopped the whales from doubling down on their bullish position.
Santiment, a blockchain and social media metrics explorer, found whales are taking the bearish trend as a sign to accumulate more BTC. “There is clear evidence that bitcoin whale addresses are viewing [8 May’s] drop below $30k as an event to accumulate,” it recently tweeted. “Santiment saw the highest amount of transactions exceeding $100k since January, and their supply of BTC held is rising again.”
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The crypto influencer who goes by the pseudonym Light told his 158,000 Twitter followers that current investors will be expressing long-term positions. He said: “Bitfinex whales are buying your capitulation again anon, like they did in July last year, twap [time-weighted average price] in addition to limit bid walls.”
A recent weekly CoinShares report found evidence to support this sentiment, which discovered investors taking advantage of the price weakness. It wrote: “Bitcoin saw inflows totalling $45m, the primary digital asset where investors expressed more positive sentiment.”
This has drastically changed from the Glassnodes report on 9 May 2022 that said whales are no longer purchasing more BTC. It wrote: “We can further dissect this into wallet cohorts, where we see that across the board, most wallet cohorts from shrimp to whales, have greatly softened in their onchain accumulation trends. Very large entities with balances [more than] 10k have been a particularly significant distributive force over the last few weeks.”
This contradictory and quickly-changing actions from whales can be seen with BTC’s main rival as well. On 12 May, Ethereum was the most purchased token among whales in the past 24 hours, according to WhaleStats, a platform answering investors calls on how to see what crypto whales are buying. The average purchase amount was worth $4m.
However, Santiment found more than 2,000 transactions were completed by whales, which were likely sales as the price of Ethereum dipped below $2,000 for the first time since July 2021.
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Aside from the crypto’s two biggest coins, WhaleStats’s top ten list also includes some other surprising altcoins.
What crypto are whales buying: Apecoin (APE)
A newer token currently being eaten up by whales is APE. Inspired by the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, Apecoin is a new Ethereum-based token for the Web 3.0 era. It was designed to fund and build new projects that are being developed by the community.
Its website wrote: “The possibilities for blockchain’s impact on culture are so endless that they can’t possibly all be predicted yet. APE is a token made to support what’s next, controlled and built on by the community. It will serve as a decentralized protocol layer for community-led initiatives that drive culture forward into the metaverse.”
The cryptocurrency has some big names attached to it. The board is made up of the co-founder of Reddit Aleixs Ohanian, head of ventures and gaming at FTX Amy Wu, and other industry leading figures.
APE is the protocol’s governance token, and holders can make decisions about the funds, projects and more.
Despite being the eighth most purchased token by the whales, it is currently down 60% in a recent seven day period and is sitting just below $6 as of 11 May.
Cardano (ADA)
Another one of the crypto bargains being accumulated by crypto whales is Cardano (ADA). The coin designed to enhance positive global change has seen big crypto players take advantage of the 2022 bearish market.
ADA had recently experienced seven months of dumping by whales with its price losing 80% from its all-time high in September 2021.
Yet Santiment found this trend had recently started to change. Cardano whales holding between one million and 10 million ADA continued to add to their bags throughout April 2022. A total 196 million ADA was bought by these addresses during this period.
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Whether this trend will continue can be debated. Since a slight peak in April, the price of Cardano has continued depreciating.
The stablecoin race
With the collapse of the TerraUSD, stablecoins have been a focus for the crypto community recently and whales are no exception. These coins are intrinsic to investing in digital assets as they provide a safe haven from the current volatile markets. The depegging of UST saw investors race to alternative and more popular stablecoins
A competition is emerging among whales over different stablecoins. Tether, the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is currently winning. Despite unpegging on the 12 May 2022 from $1, it is the second most purchased crypto by whales with 45 transactions in the past 24 hours and an average amount of $12.8m.
USD Coin, the second largest stablecoin by market cap, is catching up with 42 transactions and an average size of $11.5m. At the time of writing, it is currently the third most purchased cryptocurrency by the whales.
Final thoughts
While there are clear favourites of crypto bargains among whales, there still seems to be reluctance from big players to invest. For example, the total value of the second biggest ETH whale has gradually declined over the past month.
Even in the past week, whales have shown a tendency to switch abruptly between dumping and purchasing crypto’s big two. This makes it especially important for investors to always carry out their own research before jumping on the back of what may appear to be a trend.
The decision to trade is ultimately down to you and your attitude to risk, your expertise in this market, the spread of your investment portfolio and how comfortable you feel about losing money.
FAQs
What does whale mean in crypto?
Whale refers to the investors that hold the most amount of cryptocurrencies. It originates from the idea that they can disturb the waters of the market.
How do whales manipulate crypto?
As they hold large amounts of cryptocurrency, whales can cause selling pressure on coins if they chose to liquidate their assets. The opposite can also occur when whales purchase large amounts of cryptocurrency.
How many crypto whales are there?
According to River Financial, there are 82 wallets that each contain between 10,000 and 1,000,000 BTC.
