JULISHA CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS.
Bitcoin (BTC) held in corporations, funds, and other treasuries are now more than 3.03 Million coins. Even after the latest dip under $100,000, corporate buyers moved in for new acquisitions.
Holding and controlling Bitcoin (BTC) in a self-custodial wallet is still valuable, and large-scale entities are still holding ever-growing treasuries. In the past 30 days, the supply of BTC held in corporate, government, fund-based, and other treasuries expanded to 3.03M BTC, about 14% of the token’s supply.
MicroStrategy spearheaded the corporate holdings movement and replaced the dominance of retail holders.
Demand from corporate and eventually government-controlled wallets is seen as bullish for BTC in the short term, while critics often raise concerns about too much centralization and control over the asset.
Corporate treasuries are still closely watched for demand that could offset a pause in MicroStrategy’s buying. The fund, which used convertible bonds to buy BTC, paused buying during occasional weekly periods. Notably, it stopped new purchases at a time when BTC dipped as low as $91,000.
The immediate inflows of whale buying after market dips also preserved the general market sentiment.
On February 3, the biggest market panic pushed the Fear and Greed Index down to 44 points. Only a day later, the behavior of traders once again signaled ‘greed,’ pushing the index back to its usual range around 72 points.
BTC is still seen as a preferable bid to Ethereum (ETH) and other altcoins. The rapid market recovery may lead to several potential scenarios. It could leave the $91,000 price behind as a local bottom then continue to a new price range. It could also suffer another drawdown to a lower range. BTC traders may still attack long positions at a lower range before clearing all liquidity for a new rally.
The most recent buying accumulated several hundred BTC from the market, enough to offset some of the panic-selling. Institutional buyers acquire coins from OTC deals, but exchanges like Kraken saw outflows of whale-sized purchases for hundreds of BTC.
Mara Holdings expanded its treasury to a total of 45,659 BTC, following its first purchase in a month.
The latest purchase follows the pattern of ‘buying the dip,’ where most of the new acquisitions happen during short-term market drawdowns. A total of eight companies consolidated their BTC holdings in the past week, following the recently growing market turbulence.
Other recent buyers include Remixpoint, carrying 447.4 BTC and LQWD Technologies, Corp., just starting out with 141 BTC. Bitcoin Depot is a new buyer with 71.5 BTC. The recent buying expanded the list of entities buying BTC to a total of 157, though with vastly different weights for the market.
A total of 79 corporations, most commonly miners, have continued buying and adding to their BTC holdings. Some try to copy MicroStrategy’s model at a smaller scale, while retaining inflows from mining operations.
Not all BTC-buying entities are dedicated long-term holders. ETF demand makes up a large part of BTC buying, where demand can shift and switch to selling within days.
The latest drawdown of BTC from over $105,000 to $91,000 took away some of the recently accumulated retail holdings. Based on a rough estimate, retail-sized and mid-range wallets hold between 7% to 9% of the BTC supply.
The last few months also marked a shift in holdings from older whales to newer wallets created 1-3 months ago as new market participants build their positions ahead of the expected 2025 bull market.
Retail buying has built up significant holdings during previous bull markets. In the last year, however, the inflow of institutions flattened the ratio of retail to institutional addresses.
The current price range and sideways trading action recall a previous period of accumulation, where retail was often shaken down by larger whales.
Retail holders have several price ranges within which panic could set in. In the past few months, support levels for retail holders ranged from $87,000 to $95,000. The recent shift in ownership reflects another retail panic, where larger entities could afford to buy the dip.
Meanwhile, On Tuesday, a crypto investor made a bold move on Melania Meme (MELANIA), purchasing 6.69 million tokens at $1.50 each. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that the whale, with a newly created wallet, withdrew 10 million USDC from Binance just two hours before executing the trade.
The buy-in might have helped push MELANIA up 19% in the last 24 hours, although the market sentiment on TradingView’s indicators are still on neutral.
According to Solscan data, the whale’s wallet address portfolio only includes the Melania Meme token worth $11.304 million, meaning they have made $1.27 million in profits from the recent purchase.
When MELANIA was launched, it was trading at an all-time high of $14.496. Since then, it has lost 87.1% of its value. The coin is currently trading near $1.70, per Coingecko data.
Over the last seven days, the token has declined 30.45%. The coin has underperformed the “Made in USA” crypto market, which has seen an average drop of 11.6%.
JULISHA.CO.KE Analysts have noted that the sell-off, which began on January 21, had not shown any clear signs of reversal up until last Saturday. Technical indicators suggest that the token may be approaching a potential turning point.
Looking at the technical indicators, MELANIA’s price remains in a precarious position despite the recent bounce.
The 50-day moving average (MA50) at $2.115 and the 100-day moving average (MA100) at $2.252 both serve as key resistance levels. This indicates that the token has yet to regain ground lost during its over 80% decline.
Generally, when an asset trades below these moving averages, it suggests that the broader trend remains bearish, as the price has failed to sustain momentum above historically significant levels.
In addition, MA50 is lower than the MA100 which further confirms the bear market sentiment. In bullish conditions, shorter-term moving averages should cross above longer-term ones to push the asset into a continuous upward momentum.
Since MELANIA remains below both, it suggests that the downtrend is still intact, and bulls will need to push past these resistance zones to establish a stronger recovery.
For a sustained recovery, MELANIA must try its immediate overhead resistance at $1.9, with a more crucial barrier at $2.0. If bulls manage to push through this range, the next upside target is $3.5.
However, bulls are holding off sell-offs at a critical support level of $1.41. A break below this threshold could trigger further downside pressure and could make its price recovery to levels above $3 more difficult, JULISHA.CO.KE Analysts Opine.
FINALLY, Inflows of stablecoins onto crypto markets are signaling a new potential recovery.
This time, USDC is one of the most active tokens, with peak deposits to exchanges. The exchange flows, and increased minting on Solana happen as USDC catches up on its growth. In the past 30 days, USDC added more than 9.1M tokens, with over 6B tokens on Solana. At the same time, Tether (USDT) expanded by only 1.7B.
USDC flowed into exchanges immediately after both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) slid to a lower range. The stablecoin inflows coincided with signs of whales ‘buying the dip’ while holding liquidity on the sidelines
USDC achieved daily trading volumes above $17B in 24 hours, still behind USDT’s activity of over $130B.
The recent inflows also came from Tether (USDT), which is also widely in use. USDT inflows were similar to the market rally in November, though with a slower turnover of the outstanding supply. Both leading stablecoins are seen as a bullish indicator when there are signs of upcoming allocation to the markets.
Baseline inflows of both USDT and USDC were higher in the past few months, though especially notable after market dips. Stablecoins not only tracked BTC opportunities, but flowed into ETH and other prominent altcoins, though with a smaller allocation.
While BTC and ETH flowed out of exchanges, stablecoins were held in exchange wallets as a tool to react fast to market conditions. The tokens are seen as less risky to store on exchanges, as both Circle and Tether have shown some ability to track and freeze funds in the case of exploits.
In addition to exchange flows, USDT has resumed its supply expansion. In the past week, the correlation between the supply of USDT and the price of BTC turned positive again, potentially signaling a market recovery. USDT returned above 139B tokens, while BTC still managed to recover above $100,000.
The most active inflows of USDT happened at the end of 2024, but the current supply on centralized markets is close to an all-time high.
USDC inflows lagged, as the token started expanding its supply in the new year. Despite this, USDC also responded to the bull market, expanding its supply from 2.7B on exchanges to over 4.78B tokens in February. Over $1B in USDC flowed into exchanges in the past few days. USDC is gaining traction in Europe, as more of the local brokerages are trying to stay compliant, by limiting USDT services and products.
While stablecoins are key to market liquidity, there is still some skepticism about the potential for government and regulatory control against those assets, including wallets getting frozen. At the same time, stablecoin issuers are trying to become compliant and retain their business model, as the smart contracts for stablecoins are one of the key fee producers and drivers of on-chain activity.
Despite the slide of altcoins and the correction of BTC and ETH, the supply of stablecoins remains flat or growing. Data from Artemis revealed the total supply of stablecoins is now over 215.4B tokens, marking a new record. The tracking of VISA puts the total supply at over 206B, after discounting some of the niche synthetic coins and tokens. Stablecoins are still a growing sector, making up just 1% of the supply of the US dollar.
The new year brought a growth of the supply of EURC, with small additions to USDS from the Sky ecosystem. The newly launched USDT0, however, is off to a slow start, with 602.8M tokens flowing out just days after the launch.
Ethereum remains the busiest hub for USDT, while Solana is quickly becoming the leading carrier for USDC. The supply of stablecoins on TRON and Solana is increasing fast, reflecting demand for DEX activities.
According to a JULISHA.CO.KE Analyst, Stablecoin supply is growing due to demand for passive income.
There are no limitations to using stablecoins in riskier decentralized products, and some of the idle assets can produce relatively high passive income as collaterals for loans or in liquidity pools.