Jonas Liebschner / Whale Watching Sydney. Used with permission.
- The number of bitcoin whales fell to a five and a half month low on Monday, according to data from Glassnode.
- There are now just 1,943 total bitcoin whales-defined as wallet addresses from a single network participant with more than 1,000 BTC.
- That figure represents a 13% drop from February 7's record high of 2,237 bitcoin whales.
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The number of bitcoin whales fell to a five and a half month low on Monday in a bearish sign for the cryptocurrency, according to data from Glassnode.
Specifically, the number of bitcoin whales – defined as wallet addresses from a single network participant with more than 1,000 bitcoig – fell to 1,943 on Monday.
That's a 13% drop in the number of bitcoin whales since the record figure of 2,237 on February 7.
Bitcoin has lost more than 60 whales or 3% of the total in the past five days alone.
"The data looks bearish, as it shows a clear trend of whales offloading their holdings," Pankaj Balani, co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Delta Exchange, told Coindesk.
Despite the recent fall in big-time bitcoin holders, the total number of bitcoin whales is still up roughly 8% since June of last year.
Still, some experts have warned Ethereum's recent rise may be taking attention away from the leading cryptocurrency.
Ethereum has pushed past record highs to trade at over $4000 per coin recently. The cryptocurrency is up 87% in the past month compared to bitcoin's roughly 6% decline over the same period.
Experts at Vanda Research warned the rotation into Ethereum from bitcoin could point to a looming 2017-style correction in the cryptocurrency market in a note to clients on Monday.
Pankaj Balanihe, the chief executive officer of the crypto derivatives exchange Delta, told Insider that bitcoin could slide as low as $40,000 per coin after breaching a key resistance level as well.
Of course, not all bitcoin news has been bearish lately. There are a number of signs institutional investors are still interested in gaining more exposure to the cryptocurrency space, and bitcoin in particular.
Palantir said on Monday that it is accepting bitcoin as a form of payment and has even considered holding cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet.
Billionaire Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, Galaxy Digital's Mike Novogratz, and a number of other big-name investors also announced they are backing a new cryptocurrency exchange called Bullish Global this week.
Bullish now has $10 billion in investor support and is set to bring more cryptocurrency exposure to institutions, according to a press release from Block.one, Bullish Global's parent company.