Ahead of next year’s bitcoin halving, dormant bitcoin whales and institutional investors are waking up and moving billions. This activity, supported by positive regulatory and market-based signals, suggests that the bitcoin price could potentially make a new high and surpass $100,000. Despite a small price increase and reduced trading volume over the past 24 hours, bitcoin remains near the $30,000 mark, indicating a potential market readiness for volatility to come.
Bitcoin whales and institutional investors are awakening: BTC price could hit $100,000 before halving
In the coming months, Bitcoin (BTC) could set a new record and surpass $100,000, especially with next year’s upcoming halving. Against this backdrop, dormant wallet addresses of whales and institutional investors are becoming active again as they move billions of dollars in their BTC and other crypto assets.
This trend has been bolstered in recent months by a dovish US Federal Reserve, the filing of spot Bitcoin ETF applications by traditional financial giants like BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Invesco, positive inflows into crypto funds, and a partial win by Ripple over the US SEC.
Onchain data expert Lookonchain revealed on July 22 that another BTC whale that had been dormant for 11 years woke up and transferred all of its 1,037.42 BTC (worth $37.8 million) to a new address “bc1qtl”. According to BitInfoCharts, on April 11, 2012, the whale received 1,037.42 BTC (worth $5,107 at the time) when the price per bitcoin was just $4.92. The wallet address hit $59 million in profit as BTC hit its all-time high.
Well-known crypto reporter Colin Wu noted that these funds can be held by hackers, and their sources of funds can be traced back to 2021, then continuing into 2015, where more than 40,000 BTC were distributed across hundreds of addresses.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank predicts that Bitcoin could reach $50,000 later this year and reach $120,000 by the end of 2024. Bank analysts expect miners to hoard Bitcoin more. Renowned author and financial educator Robert Kiyosaki, known for his book Rich Dad Poor Dad, also predicts that Bitcoin will hit $120,000 in the near future. In fact, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, and stock-to-flow model inventor PlanB have also predicted a massive surge in BTC price.
Today, the BTC price fell by 0.03%, with the current trading price at $29,850. The 24-hour low and high are $29,746 and $30,046, respectively. Additionally, trading volume has decreased by 31% over the past 24 hours, indicating subdued interest from traders.
Bitcoin before a burst of volatility comparable to the January boom?
Bitcoin (BTC) is showing signs of an impending volatility burst, comparable to the significant 40% gains the cryptocurrency posted in January. The on-chain data, as reported in analytics firm Glassnode’s weekly newsletter, The Week On-Chain, points to the tightest Bollinger Bands for BTC since the start of 2023.
During the past few months, the price of BTC has been trading in a narrow range, with $30,000 acting as a turning point for sideways movements. This situation tests both bullish and bearish traders, leaving them uncertain about the future direction of the market.
On July 21, analyst Aksel Kibar noted that the ongoing sideways movement is often a precursor to sharp price swings, although he remains unsure which direction these will go. To prepare for the upcoming spike in volatility, it sticks to its well-defined boundaries and awaits the directional move.
Bollinger Bands, a classic indicator of volatility, are currently signaling that the days of ranged BTC price history are limited. These bands use the standard deviation around a simple moving average to determine when a trend reversal is likely.
Currently, the upper and lower bands are closer together than at any other time during BTC’s 2023 rally, indicating a potentially significant move imminent. The market is experiencing a period of extremely low volatility, with the 20-day Bollinger Bands showing an extreme tightening marking the “quietest BTC market since the early January lull”.
Additionally, despite BTC’s price gains since January, Glassnode has noted that there is little active selling to take profit or loss at current levels. This lack of “realized” activity is a common phenomenon after price troughs in the cycle.
Investors seem reluctant to spend their coins on-chain, as evidenced by the relatively small sum of gains and losses realized in the market of around $290 million per day. This number, while significant in nominal terms, is comparable to the situation in 2019 and October 2020, even though Bitcoin’s market cap has roughly doubled since then.
BTC20: The more profitable alternative to Bitcoin
BTC20 is establishing itself as a major player in the crypto scene and presents itself as an exciting complement to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Currently finds the pre sale where investors have the opportunity to purchase tokens for as little as $1, the price of bitcoin in 2011. Despite the recent launch, the project has already gained impressive momentum, with sales exceeding $300,000.
This new crypto innovation offers a mix of the best features of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. BTC20 plans to implement similar tokenomics as Bitcoin combined with advanced features like staking. This combination makes it attractive to investors, and hence, it is expected to see a sharp increase in demand after its launch on exchanges.
BTC20 is an Ethereum ERC-20 token and thus compatible with all other Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dApps). Like Bitcoin, BTC20 consists of 21 million tokens. However, only 6.05 million will be available in presale, the rest will be reserved for staking rewards.
The staking-based feature of BTC20, called “Stake to Earn”, allows investors to deposit their tokens into the project smart contract and receive staking rewards proportional to their stake in the staking pool. The BTC20 presale will be conducted at a flat price of $1, with a hard cap of $6.05 million and a soft cap of $3 million. Interested investors should now deal with the project before the pre-sale ends.