The head of blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant says that ancient Bitcoin (BTC) whales are largely remaining dormant.
Ki Young Ju tells his 363,800 followers on the social media platform X that the Spent Output Age Bands (SOAB) metric indicates long-term holders of Bitcoin are not moving their coins.
The SOAB bundles spent coins into categories depending on their age and presents them in colored bands as a proportion of total coins moved.
“Ancient Bitcoin whales are still sleeping. Moving Bitcoins dormant for seven-plus years has historically triggered market volatility, depending on source and destination. (Mt. Gox excluded in this chart). If you were an ancient whale, what would you do now?”
Ju also says this cohort of Bitcoin holders is largely not sending their coins to crypto exchanges, which would indicate a sell-off is potentially imminent.
“No signs of significant BTC deposits to exchanges from these ancient whales as well.”
Bitcoin is trading for $62,126 at time of writing, down slightly in the last 24 hours.
Weighing in on the altcoin market, Ju says that a lack of regulatory clarity in the United States for crypto is creating a headwind for many digital asset projects, including UNI, the native asset of the Uniswap decentralized exchange (DEX).
“Some altcoins with real value aren’t rising due to regulatory hurdles. They can generate revenue but are very cautious in doing so. For example, if Uniswap’s fee switch had been activated, its treasury could hold $314 million. Currently, there are $408 million worth of UNI on centralized exchanges. If the treasury were used for buybacks, prices could have surged by 10x-100x, depending on order book depth. (Not financial advice; I don’t hold UNI.)
If [Donald] Trump wins [the US presidential election in November], expect regulatory changes, including fee switches enabling token burns for revenue-generating projects… Alts could rally if Trump wins, but for now, it’s all gambling in an unregulated space.”
UNI is trading for $7.30 at time of writing, up 3.5% in the last 24 hours.
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