Morning Minute | Bitcoin Whales Are Driving The Price Down
TylerD's Market Summary
💰 The "Ancient" Bitcoin Whales Are Selling
The biggest surprise of the past few weeks has been the confluence of a series of macro bullish headlines for crypto.
Yet price going down.
Well, now we know why.
What Happened?
Yesterday CryptoQuant released data showing that "Long-term Holder Whales" have sold $1.2B worth of Bitcoin over the past 2 weeks.
This was an "unprecedented" amount of selling in USD terms, according to CryptoQuant's Head of Research Julio Moreno.
The closest comp was when this same cohort (defined as those who have held for 155 days or more) realized $683M in profits in 1 day back in April 2022.
On the bright side, their data does show that the whale cohort overall is continuing to accumulate Bitcoin, but at a slower rate than during Q1 of 2024.
Why It Matters
The macro crypto set up remains as bullish as ever.
The ETFs have been a huge success, stablecoins are rising, and the bankers haven't even really started pitching BTC to their clients yet.
And after this recent dip, funding rates (an indicator of long/short interest) are at their lowest in months (meaning much less leverage in the system).
It's a strong backdrop, and if these whales stop selling - BTC could really soar.
And hopefully, bring the rest of the market up with it.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- ETH led NFT trading volume with $6.7M on the day; Polygon was next with $5.3M and then BTC & SOL with $2.4M & $2.1M
- ETH NFT leaders were mixed as Pudgy Penguins rebounded 13% to 7.9 ETH, BAYC held at 8.8, Azuki fell 13% to 2.75 and Milady jumped 6% to 5 ETH
- CryptoPunks fell below a 25 ETH floor, including 8 sales of wrapped Punks for 21.78 ETH (into Blur bids)
- Otherdeeds and Mavia Lands were top movers on the day, jumping 20% each
- BTC NFT leaders were mixed; NodeMonkes +4% at 0.199 BTC, Puppets +2% at 0.121 BTC, OMB -3% at 0.218 and Quantum Cats -7% at 0.238
- The Runes leaders were mixed with DOG -3% at $595M mc, RSIC -6% at $135M, and PUPS +13% at $81M
- Solana NFTs saw slight red; Mad Lads -1% at 65.5 SOL, SMB Gen 2 -3% at 26, DeGods -4% at 19.5
- Memeland announced its latest Stakeland project, $BORPA, a new memecoin with fair distribution via a financial game
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:
- LayerZero's ZRO token claim went live, along with a Proof-of-Donation mechanism requiring $0.10 to be given per ZRO
- Pacmoon v3 launched, using a similar validator model but where points are earned via likes from the Pacmoon team and by liking pacmoon content tweets based on PAC held (10k PAC min); the token fell 25% to a $29M mc
- FRIEND rallied 28% after FriendTech announced its token would be transferable in the next few weeks as they gear up for their L2
- Particle introduced its $PTC as a governance token, and anyone with Particle Points will be eligible to claim at TGE
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors are green this morning; BTC +1% at $65,850; ETH +1.3% at $3,590, SOL -1% at $138
- Memecoin majors are also green with DOGE +1%, PEPE +2%, WIF +2%, BONK +2%;
- Security firm Certik exploits Kraken for $3M, Kraken team claims extortion
- VanEck's Spot BTC ETF went live in Australia's biggest stock exchange
- Jupiter jumped 10% to a $1.08B mc after founder meow shared a draft proposal to cut 30% of the token supply and have the team stake their tokens for another 2 years
- TURBO surged 33% ($363M mc) after its team teased a major partnership annnouncement coming next Tuesday along with more to come
- Animoca Brands is partnering with One Football to drive fan loyalty on Base with One Football Club
🚀 Memecoin Movers
- $DJT (+68%, $175M market cap, SOL)
- $WOLF (+45%, $109M market cap, SOL)
- $NPC (+33%, $208M market cap, ETH)
- $TURBO (+23%, $372M market cap, ETH)
- $ZACK (+31%, $42M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- Matr1x Kuku (21%, 1.2 ETH Floor)
- Otherdeed (21%, 0.19 ETH)
- Early Retired Cats Club (20%, 0.27 ETH)
- Honey Comb (14%, 0.24 ETH)
- Pudgy Penguins (13%, 7.91 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a slower day of mints, again mostly in the art sector.
The highlight is the LayerZero ZRO token claim, live this morning. It does come with a "Proof-of-Donation" required $0.10 per ZRO token claimed, with proceeds going to the Protocol Guild.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- ZRO claim (live)
- Sinclair x Prohibition - Onchain Summer (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Crypto Cabal (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Mario Klingemann - Mare Nostrum II (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Floor - Series 3 Drop 7 (3:00 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.
