More long-dead BTC moved this week than at any time since just before the $20,000 all-time high in December 2017.
Bitcoin (BTC) dived $3,000 into the morning of April 1 as a widely-predicted pullback seemed to accompany fresh moves by major investors.
As revealed by the Whale Shadows indicator, over 11,000 BTC suddenly left its wallet on March 29, having previously sat there for most of a decade.
Dormant coins echo December 2017
Whale Shadows, coined by analyst Philip Swift, tracks coins that become active again after spending a considerable amount of time out of circulation.
Tuned to only record when 100 BTC or more leave their long-term wallet, spikes in the metric have previously coincided with what Swift argues are “major highs” in price.
“There was a significant movement on-chain yesterday, with +10k BTC that has not moved for the past 7-10yrs finally moving,” he noted on March 31.
The spike in that age band, described as involving 7-9 year dormant coins on Swift‘s analytics site, LookIntoBitcoin, is one of the two largest ever in Bitcoin‘s history.
The only other time that old coins moved on such a scale was in December 2017 when BTC/USD hit an all-time high that would remain unbeaten for three years.
Discussing the data on Twitter, however, opinions varied considerably over the significance of the latest event.
ℹ️ The massive amount of activated dormant #BTC in the previous posts are possibly linked to the #Cryptsy hack/theft.
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) March 29, 2022
Swift argued that the funds involved were likely tied to a 2014 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Cryptsy, while others disagreed.
Popular user Nunya Bizniz further noted that the spike had occurred after Bitcoin‘s comedown from its latest $69,000 all-time highs, not before.
Past 3 moved prior to substantial corrections.
Why do you think this move is occurring after a substantial correction?
— Nunya Bizniz (@Pladizow) March 31, 2022
Bitcoin fails to escape the Ides of March
As Cointelegraph previously reported, appetites were keen for Bitcoin to retrace after reaching its highest levels of 2022, gaining as much as 29.4% between its March lows and highs.
Related: Bitcoin just regained a key price trendline after its longest absence since March 2020
Fellow popular trader Pentoshi nonetheless still entertained the potential for a trip over $50,000 next.
For Crypto Ed, however, the outlook was less rosy. Having failed to hold its support zone of around $45,000, in addition to the $46,200 yearly open, Bitcoin now faced a deeper retracement and reentry back into its established trading range.
In case the green box doesn’t hold, #BTC will do a full retrace of the previous pump.
Just like every other pump in the current cycle….back to the demand zone and bounce. pic.twitter.com/ovGwuJrBSR
— Ed_NL (@Crypto_Ed_NL) March 31, 2022
Previously, whales on exchange Bitfinex had caught the market‘s attention with a sell wall near current spot prices, one which bulls nonetheless managed to overcome temporarily.
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