By Marcus Sotiriou, Market Analyst at the publicly listed digital asset broker GlobalBlock (TSXV:BLOK).
Despite the bearish price action we have seen over the past year, Glassnode data indicates that Bitcoin whales have continued to accumulate. According to Glassnode, Bitcoin whale addresses (number of Bitcoin addresses above 10,000 Bitcoin) has risen sharply this year, as shown below. This means there is a significantly larger portion of Bitcoin whales now compared to the start of the year, as whales have decided to accumulate more Bitcoin whilst It is discounted.
MicroStrategy is one Bitcoin whales that has continued adding to its Bitcoin stack, as they announced yesterday that they purchased more Bitcoin for its corporate treasury.
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, announced:
MicroStrategy has increased its bitcoin holdings by ~2,500 BTC. As of 12/27/22 MicroStrategy holds ~132,500 bitcoin acquired for ~$4.03 billion at an average price of ~$30,397 per bitcoin.
Microstrategy bought the extra 2,500 coins between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, according to its filing with the SEC, at an average price of around $17,900 per coin.
Amongst the mayhem in the crypto market this year, Saylor’s conviction in Bitcoin remains. He claimed in an interview last week:
“The most positive thing of the year is the emergence of bitcoin as the institutional grade digital asset and the clarity that … there is one crypto asset that’s a digital commodity … Bitcoin is that commodity.”
Indeed, both the chairman of the SEC and the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have confirmed that Bitcoin is a commodity, hence it does not have the regulatory risk that most other crypto assets have. I am optimistic though that regulation will be implemented next year which removes much of the regulatory risk of other crypto industry, as we gain clarity on what is and what isn’t a security in the eyes of the SEC.
