Share this article
Large Bitcoin Holders Accumulate $1.5B Worth of BTC as Price Wavers
The accumulation suggests optimism among large investors, IntoTheBlock’s head of research noted.
Updated Sep 1, 2023, 8:48 p.m. Published Sep 1, 2023, 8:31 p.m.
Large bitcoin (BTC) investors – “whales” in crypto terms – seemed undeterred by the recent weakness in price and substantially increased their holdings.
Data by crypto analytics firm IntoTheBlock shows that addresses holding at least 0.1% of the bitcoin supply – worth more than $500 million – increased their stash by a total of $1.5 billion in the last two weeks of August.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The increase occurred while inflows into centralized exchanges were near zero, suggesting that “there is organic buying demand rather than just funds moving to exchange addresses,” Lucas Outumuro, head of research at IntoTheBlock, wrote in a report.
Whales are entities who control large amounts of a digital asset. Their purchases and sales can have a sizable impact on markets, thus crypto watchers closely follow their behavior to anticipate market movements.
The purchases happened during a period when BTC’s price sunk to a two-month low, temporarily lifted by an important court decision in Grayscale’s campaign to list a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the U.S.
Large holders first loaded up after Aug. 17, when BTC plunged more than 10% to below $26,000, its lowest price since June, IntoTheBlock data shows.
They also increased holdings earlier this week following asset manager Grayscale’s court victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A federal appeals court ordered the agency to vacate and review its denial to convert the $14 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a more-desirable spot bitcoin ETF.
Analysts interpreted the court’s decision as a key advance towards listing the first spot BTC ETF in the U.S., making the largest cryptocurrency more accessible for a new class of investors.
Still, BTC has erased all gains from the brief rally ignited by the Grayscale ruling and slid back below $26,000 on Friday.
Despite the weak price action, the accumulation suggests that “institutional investors are getting optimistic in bitcoin as ETF decisions approach,” Outumuro said.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin Drops Below $90K Amid Fading Risk Appetite Ahead of Key Macro Events
Bitcoin hovered below $90,000 on Sunday as low liquidity, altcoin weakness and imminent U.S. and global data releases kept traders cautious.
What to know:
- Bitcoin slipped below $90,000 in low-liquidity Sunday trading.
- Ether showed relative strength while major altcoins lagged.
- Traders are positioning ahead of a busy week of U.S. data and central bank events.
Top Stories
