Crypto markets are currently a good opportunity to pile some on and wait for conditions to stabilize. Many influencers and analysts believe that the current bear market is just a bear trap deployed to accumulate assets dropped by weak hands, primarily whales!

Is the bear trap set by the whales, as their accumulation slowly peaks?

Do whales and institutions know more than traders?

What drives them to accumulate more when their previous holdings have suffered a significant loss?

Let’s dig deeper!

Who are the whales?

A cryptocurrency whale or crypto whale or simply “whale” refers to an individual or entity that holds a large amount of assets. They have a sufficient share of the circulating supply and have enormous potential to manipulate price changes. Some examples include, the top 100 BTC wallets holding nearly 15.36%, or more than 2 million BTC out of 19 million. While Dogecoin whales collectively hold nearly 52% or 29.5 billion DOGE.

These large holdings are closely watched by experts and tracked by on-chain platforms as they have the potential to pump or dump the price. Most whales remain passive, but if a whale transacts, it is announced publicly. Whales are always waiting for the right opportunity, especially the stock market crash, to accumulate more. In some cases, bear markets accumulate more.

Also Read: Will Government-Implanted CBDCs and Stablecoins Aim to Kill the Crypto Space in the Near Future?

What are the whales hoarding now?

It should be noted that each crypto asset has its whale and continues to accumulate the respective asset with each drop. However, the current scenario is a bit different as the whale has accumulated other assets with huge volumes.

Bitcoin Whales

Bitcoin whales have accumulated more bitcoins with each dip. BTC whales started accumulating in the second half of 2020 and sold off when the asset hit its highs at $64,000. Since then, the accumulation has followed a decreasing trend until the recent peak. In a highly unusual event, the accumulation of whales dropped from around 3.5 million to 3.8 million.

The accumulation followed price falling below $18,000 in the recent past. These whale addresses contain between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC. A notable price rally was seen after a surge in whale stocks as Bitcoin held firmly above $20,000 until press time.

However, the highest levels accumulated by the whale were close to 4 million. If the accumulation slowly returns to these levels, fear of a drastic decline may hang over the price of BTC. And if the asset drops by 50% as it happened before, the price could fall below $10,000.

What Ethereum whales are buying

On the other hand, Ethereum whales, in addition to accumulating ETH, transferred their capital into numerous DeFi and NFT tokens. According to an analytics platform, the top 100 Ethereum whales have now focused on Celer Network. Considering holding whales among the top 2000 whales, Shiba INU remains the most held token worth over $577 million, followed by Shib Doge.

Besides these tokens, ETH whales also hold JasmyCoin (JASMY), Bancor (BNT), Uniswap (UNI), Enjin Coin (ENJ), Polygon (MATIC), and PAXG. The most traded token currently is Polygon, while the most held token is Decentraland (MANA). On the other hand, the most important symbolic position in dollars remains SHIB.

It is also noticed that ETH whales are currently selling more than they are buying and therefore the whale fear index is 26.

Whales on other channels!

Whales on BinanceSmartChain, Fantom, Polygon, and Avalanche have also increased lately. Whales on BSC have been trading Galaxy Heros Coin (GHC) heavily lately while largely holding Pancakeswap (CAKE) tokens. However, the highest holding in terms of dollar value remains the Bitcoin BEP2 (BTCB) token.

Similarly, whales in the Fantom chain traded heavily with whales on the Paintbrush (BRUSH) token, largely held USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins, and the same coin is the largest token position by dollar value .

When it comes to the Polygon chain, Blocknet (BLOCK) is the most traded among the top 100 whales. The token widely held by these whales if Minereum (MNEP) and the largest position by dollar value is MAI (MI MATIC). Considering the Avalanche whales, the most traded token is Step App (FITFI) and the widely held token and largest dollar value token is the USD coin (USDC).

Also Read: Celsius Network – Ethereum Crisis Not Over Yet, Protocol May Liquidate Collateral: Report

What will the whales do in the days to come?

Considering the previous trend, it is quite obvious that some whales fall into FUD or rather create FUD. The sudden collapse in May 2021 can also be said to have been powered by whales. Since then, whales have distinguished themselves from large accumulations. Therefore, this may be an indication that the price of BTC has not bottomed yet, as whales accumulate during the bottoms themselves.

In recent times, the crypto markets have been exposed to a few events that have hampered their growth miserably. Starting with the LUNA-UST crash, followed by the Celsius network shutdown, later the 3AC crisis and some liquidity crises in some exchanges. The markets have always reacted negatively in all situations. Additionally, now that 3AC’s liquidation has reportedly been ordered, another stock market crash could be just around the corner.

It can be when the whales, regardless of the chains, can leap into action to collect the assets left behind by the weak hands. By doing so, they can hold a huge share of the circulating tokens, which is quite enough to manipulate stocks and price movements shortly.