Bitcoin price jumped over 2% in the past 24 hours, with a 1.67% increase in the hour on December 8. The price of BTC is currently trying to hold on to the price level above $17k for an upward movement. However, on-chain data shows Whale clusters are still selling their holdings.
It should be understood that the behavior of groups of 'Whales' in holding, buying and selling holdings can give an indication to the market in identifying the Bitcoin market cycle easily. The UTXO Value Bands metric shows that upward trends in the price of BTC are often associated with the accumulation of Bitcoin among groups of sharks and whales.
However, on-chain data shows that the 'Whales' cluster has continued to reduce their Bitcoin holdings since June 2022. After the Terra-LUNA crisis, the Bitcoin 'Whales' cluster has sold nearly 367k BTC. Also, the price of BTC has been steadily declining since June. Therefore, the group of Bitcoin 'Whales' are still selling their BTC holdings, and the price of Bitcoin is under pressure.
Traders must observe the behavior of groups of 'Whales' to get the direction of BTC price movement. Meanwhile, on-chain data shows that groups of 'Whales' with 1k-10k BTC continue to liquidate their BTC holdings during the miner capitulation phase until November. In fact, the group of 'Whales' started collecting Bitcoins but sold their BTC purchases due to the fall of the crypto exchange FTX.
A sustained upward price trend is usually accompanied by whales holding on to their bitcoins. However, almost 80% of Bitcoin sales since June have come from the 'Whales' group. Therefore, the shift in the market cycle may come at the expense of the 'Whales' group which is much lower.
In the midst of uncertainty and the price of BTC being able to maintain the price level of $17K, the price of BTC can drop to $12.8k. Analysts such as Michael van de Poppe and “Wolf of the Wall Street” Jordan Belfort believe Bitcoin can rally if it crosses $18k, suggesting $16.5k as a critical support level.
Based on CoinMarketCap, the price of Bitcoin is currently trading at $17,259.71, up over 2% in the past 24 hours.
