By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 5 September 2023
In late August 2023, despite falling prices, the largest bitcoin holders were accumulating. According to IntoTheBlock, addresses holding at least 0.1% of the circulating supply, each worth more than $500 million, added $1.5 billion of bitcoin in the last two weeks of the month, while inflows to exchanges were almost nil, which its chief researcher, Lucas Outumuro, saw as a sign of organic buying demand.
The buying was strongest after 17 August, when bitcoin fell more than 10% to below $26,000, its lowest level since June 2023. A federal appeals court ruling requiring the SEC to reconsider Grayscale’s bid to convert its $14 billion bitcoin trust into a spot ETF briefly lifted the price. The article notes that short-term holders were selling and that September had historically been weak for bitcoin, but presents the whales’ accumulation and the coming halving as signs of a positive longer-term outlook.