More Bitcoins to exit the market; Whale handling at stake?

Wahid Pessarlay

Percentage of BTC held on exchanges drops to four-year low of 8.7% in October as whales pile up

According to data from the crypto market analysis platform Sanimentthe percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) circulating supply held on crypto exchanges has dropped significantly so far in October.

With more and more coins moving off exchanges, trading platforms now only hold 8.7% of the circulating supply of BTC. This matches levels last seen in November 2018, Santiment notes.

In contrast, data shows that the supply of Ether (ETH) on exchanges saw an upsurge before the merger last month. ETH held on the exchange represents 14.5% of its circulating supply. While this figure is still relatively high, it is down from the roughly 16% reached late last month during the merger hype.

What is the likelihood of whale manipulation?

The supply trend of the two major crypto tokens is tied to increased whale activity in their markets. Like before Noted Per Santiment, whale wallets holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC added a cumulative 46,173 BTC over a one-week period ending October 5.

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The trend has been noted as a rarity for the market in 2022. Similarly, an analyst from the CryptoQuant platform alleged that ETH whales may have manipulated the market with their exchange activities.

However, the argument remains moot because despite the exodus from forex, the prices of BTC and ETH have continued to oscillate. BTC is trading at around $19,000, down 6.2% in the past week. Similarly, ETH is trading at around $1280, down 5.5% in the same time frame per data from CoinMarketCap.

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