Bitcoin wallets holding less than 1 BTC are expected to grow by approximately 9% in the near term as small-scale investors keep accumulating despite the asset breaking past the $100,000 mark, according to a crypto analyst.
“Despite being labeled as “shrimps,” these holders are showing strong confidence in Bitcoin’s growth, continuing to accumulate coins even at current price levels,” CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler said in a Dec. 14 X post.
Trend suggests upward movement for Shrimp wallets
Shrimp wallets are an important indicator for crypto market participants to understand the level of “retail interest” in Bitcoin (BTC). Axel explained that the average number of Shrimp addresses holding less than 1 Bitcoin currently stands at 323,000, an amount he expects to increase by a further 8.67% in the near term:
“Given the current trend, I expect the number of addresses to rise further, reaching 351K in the near future.”
Bitcoin Shrimp Address Count Graph. Source: Axel Adler
Adler explained that this growth began when Bitcoin was trading at $61,000, with 265,000 shrimp addresses. He said that since that price level, the number of shrimp addresses has increased by “21.9%.”
At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s price is $101,549, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Bitcoin is trading at $101,720 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap
While shrimps continue accumulating, long-term holders — wallets holding Bitcoin for at least 155 days — have been recently offloading.
On Dec. 9, Cointelegraph reported that long-term holders sold 827,783 BTC over the past 30 days.
Long-term holders have been offloading their Bitcoin
Some analysts said the large amount of selling from long-term holders could signal a potential top that could turn markets bearish and catch traders offside when buy-side demand starts to wane.
However, according to one crypto analysis, near-term Bitcoin price dips probably won’t be as deep as Bitcoin’s recent 10% plunge, as selling pressure has significantly eased since its first spike above six figures.
“With such a decline in realized profit and sell-side pressure, we can expect future declines to be less abrupt than the one experienced last week,” Bitfinex analysts said in a Dec. 9 markets report.
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