It’s evident when you open your browser this morning that Bitcoin has gained quite a bit of value.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we were looking at $11,000. Now we have numbers above $15,000 for a nearly 30% gain within just a few trading cycles. Not bad!
As Bitcoin appears to launch toward its all-time highs around $20,000, analysts are looking at what’s driving this value hike.
According to crypto expert Willie Woo, it’s all about the high net worth investors, the big players, the “whales” in the Bitcoin market. These larger forces, Woo suggests, are quietly hovering up BTC behind the scenes, before the rest of the world catches on.
“Who has been buying this rally? It’s smart money… High Net Worth Individuals,” Woo recently proclaimed, according to Cointelegraph coverage by Joseph Young. “You can see the average transaction value between investors taking a big jump upwards. OTC desks are seeing this too. Bitcoin is still in it’s stealth phase of its bull run.”
Woo points to low Google indexes for the word “Bitcoin” as ballast for the idea that the average retail consumer is not yet buying into the Bitcoin market.
This argument also cites buy-in from areas like California and the island paradise of Hawaii, as well as Silicon Valley, all places, Woo contends, where rich people tend to live.
At Coindesk, Omkar Godbole analyzes related BTC mining activity.
“Miners have run down inventory by 2,647 BTC over the past seven days by selling more than they mined, according to data source ByteTree,” Godbole writes. “This typically occurs when miners feel the market has the strength to absorb their extra supply; conversely, they tend to hoard when the market looks weak. Such caution is needed because sales by miners, along with institutional investors, have the biggest influence on price, and mining profitability is positively correlated with the cryptocurrency’s price.”
What all of this means for many traders is that the Bitcoin they already bought and held is worth significantly more about halfway to doubling its value. For those who haven’t yet bought in, it might be time to buy on the dip, if one emerges.
