Whales Are Moving Their Holdings to Exchanges, and This Could Mean Big Price Swings Are Coming

Whales are large holders of a cryptocurrency, and these individuals or entities can shift the market either by buying up coins or by dumping coins into the market.

Large holders, commonly known as whales, in the cryptocurrency market can exert a significant influence on the market trends. They can impact the market either by actively buying up coins, thus increasing demand and potentially pushing prices up, or by dumping coins en masse, which can exert selling pressure and drive prices down.

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Santiment sheds light on the behavior of these large-holder whales and how it is being monitored to try to forecast certain market conditions.

According to Santiment’s analysis, some of the largest whale movements were spotted for the assets EURI, USDP, NEIRO, and MOCA, with large portions of the total supply of those assets being transferred.

This is an important point to note because these big transfers to exchanges are often signals that major price adjustments are about to happen.

“Significant whale movement to exchanges, according to the @santimentfeed centralized exchange deposit dashboard, has been spotted for the following assets in individual transfers:

🪙 @eurite_bc $EURI (2.92% of supply moved)

🪙 @paxos $USDP (1.89% of supply moved)

🪙 $NEIRO (1.21% of supply moved)

....and $MOCA (0.88% of supply moved). ”

EURI: European Stablecoin Pliable in Hands of Large Holder

The European stablecoin, EURI, saw 2.92% of its total supply moved. Such a large transfer could signal a variety of things, such as a whale preparing for a potential sale or repositioning in the market.

Given the volatility inherent in stablecoins and their importance in global trading, large transactions like this could also be tied to strategic moves involving currency hedging or liquidity management and might echo the financial gymnastics around the collapses of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

USDP: Paxos-Issued Stablecoin May See Increased Selling Pressure

In much the same way, the Paxos-issued stablecoin, USDP, witnessed 1.89% of its supply being shifted to exchanges. Although USDP has seemed a relatively stable asset in the crypto space, this sort of shifting could be a signal that significant holders are gearing up for trading in the not-so-distant future, which has the potential to affect liquidity and pricing.

Whether these transfers represent a move toward liquidation or a positioning play in anticipation of a broader market shift remains to be seen.

NEIRO: Smaller-Cap Asset Could See Larger Impact From Transaction

The smaller-cap cryptocurrency, NEIRO, saw 1.21% of the total supply move. Smaller-cap cryptocurrencies could experience more noticeable price fluctuations based on large transactions.

Whale movements in such assets often precede significant market moves, either from institutional investors seeking to capitalize on price swings or from major stakeholders adjusting their portfolios.

MOCA: Native Token of Moca Network May See Project Development

Lastly, MOCA, the native token of the Moca Network, saw 0.88% of its total supply moved to exchanges. While this may seem like a smaller transfer compared to the others, it still represents a sizable percentage of the token’s circulating supply.

Given that MOCA is associated with a specific ecosystem, such movements could indicate upcoming project developments or changes in investor sentiment regarding its long-term potential.

Why Whale Movements Matter

The exchanges can be early warning systems for enormous market changes. They and the activity seen at them tell us a lot when it comes to major market moves.

Seeing big chunks of an asset being moved to centralized exchanges by large holders is, on the whole, a pretty bearish signal. It could certainly also be a signal to be on guard, not just for those who hold particular assets but for the market as a whole.

Furthermore, transactions by whales tend to have an effect on liquidity, and this is particularly apparent in smaller-cap assets. The same is true for market conditions wherein the volatility is low. In these scenarios, a single large trade, whether it’s a buy or a sell, can push the price of an asset well in the intended direction if that direction happens to be down. But what are the implications of this for the future of price discovery and an asset’s real-world utility? Again, I don’t know.

Consequently, analysts and investors have to keep a watchful eye on the activity of whales. When the biggest holders of a cryptocurrency start making significant moves, it is always a good idea to figure out what those moves might mean. If you can, try to track down the largest transfers of crypto to exchanges and figure out if those transfers were made by whales and what kinds of assets they were moving. If you’re not able to do all of that, then at least guesstimate what kind of impact certain big moves by certain big players might have on cryptocurrency prices.