Bitcoin whales grow in numbers amid BTC price increase

• The number of large BTC addresses is growing, according to recent research.
• BTC/USD demonstrates short-term recovery from a broken trendline.

Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from the intraday low of $10,040 and moved towards $10,200. At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $10,180 with nearly 4% of gains on a day-to-day basis. Bitcoin’s average trading volume has settled at $49.2 billion, while Bitcoin’s market share edged marginally higher towards 62.4%.

Bitcoin whales populate the market 

The number of large Bitcoin addresses containing 100+ BTC has grown by 4.3% since this time a year ago and hit the all-time high at 14,536. The number of whale addresses with over 1000 BTC jumped by nearly 32% to  2041, which is the second-highest level on record, according to the recent report provided by Intotheblock. 

Notably, the growing number of whales coincides with Bitcoin price increase: the first digital coin gained nearly 160% in recent 12 months. This consolidation of wealth may be regarded as a positive signal as it means that the trading becomes more mature and less dominated by small speculative accounts. 

At the same time, Intotheblock researches note that Bitcoin’s network has been growing steadily with over 254,000 addresses added over the last seven days.  

BTC/USD: Technical picture

On the intraday charts, BTC/USD rebounded from a broken downside trendline ($10,046) that now serves as initial support. The nearest resistance is created by $10,170-$10,200 area, which included the highest level of the previous hour and the upper boundary of the short-term consolidation pattern. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $10,285 (Tuesday’s high) and $10,300. The ultimate resistance comes at $10,500. A sustainable move above this barrier will signal that the bull’s trend is back on track.

On the downside, if the price moves below the support created by the broken downside trendline at $10,046, the sell-off will continue towards $10,000. This psychological level is reinforced by SMA50 30-min, and the chances are that it will slow down the bears and trigger another upside wave. Otherwise, the downside momentum may start snowballing with the next focus on SMA100 30-min at $9,840 and $9,640.

BTC/USD 30-min chart