The BTC rate keeps consolidating around the $35,000 mark in anticipation of new fundamental drivers. Over the past 2 months, bears have made several attempts to push the rate below $30,000. Ultimately, the bulls managed to hold their dominating positions.
For a long time, market participants tried to understand whether institutional traders are still interested in the cryptocurrency industry after the last crash. The current data from the Glassnode on-chain market intelligence suggests that they still are. Moreover, right now, large investors are actively increasing their positions in bitcoin, taking advantage of the lower price. Just last Friday, the number of BTC addresses controlled by a single investor holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC increased by more than 80,000, reaching 4.216 million, the highest level since May, when Bitcoin was quoted around $60,000.
Many experts suggest that the resumed interest of 'whale entities' and increased investments in bitcoin may well become a new trigger for further price growth. It's worth noting that these same investors, who have been actively purchasing BTC in recent days, played a key role in the bullish rally in BTC/USD in the first 5 months of this year when the rate skyrocketed from $30,000 to $60,000.
In May, the collapse in BTC prices resulted in a decrease in cryptocurrency volume managed by institutional investors. By mid-May, their bitcoin stash had dropped by 8% to 4.17 million BTC. For most of that period, Bitcoin was trading in the range between $50,000 and $60,000. Further events showed the inability of small investors to keep the market from a panic sell-off, and the price corrected to $30,000.
Traders believe that the cryptocurrency market is about to face another wave of sell-offs triggered by the unlocking of Grayscale stocks. We are talking about investors who borrowed funds to buy BTC through the Genesis lending platform at the beginning of the year to enter Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust that holds $20 billion worth of bitcoin. The first shares will be unlocked this week. It is expected that some investors may sell their assets to compensate for the losses from the discount. In this scenario, the BTC/USD sellers may make another attempt to test the $30,000 support. After that, the cryptocurrency market will enter a period of calm, and, in the absence of negative news from China, the BTC rate should gradually reach the much-coveted $100,000 mark.