Crypto Market Insights:

• Bitcoin (BTC) price hit a wall at $34,500 on Tuesday, October 31, as the market hype surrounding the Spot ETF approval began to wane.
• On-chain data shows that a group of BTC whale investors has been quietly taking profits to the tune of $1.4 billion since Bitcoin hit a new 2023 peak of $35,000 last week. 
• Meanwhile, XRP, Solana, and Toncoin emerged as the biggest gainers in the top 20 crypto ranking. 

The ongoing Bitcoin (BTC) price rally hit a wall at $34,500 on Tuesday, October 31, as the hype surrounding the potential Spot ETF approval began to wane. On-chain data shows that a group of BTC whales has been quietly taking profits to the tune of $1.4 billion since the price of Bitcoin hit a new 2023 peak of $35,000 last week. 

Bitcoin Whales Spotted Offloading 40,000 BTC Worth $1.4 Billon 

Bitcoin price has struggled to find momentum to break above the $35,000 resistance over the past week. On-chain data shows that the price stagnation could be attributed to a group Bitcoin whale investors who have been quietly booking profits. 

According to Santiment, crypto whales holding 100,000 to 1 million BTC held a cummulative  balance of 8.61 million BTC when Bitcoin price crossed $35,000 on October 25. But since then, they have sold off 40,000 BTC, briging down their baalances to 8.57 million BTC as of October 31. 

The Whales’ Wallet Balances metric, tracks real-time flows of large institutional investor’s buying/selling activity. The chart above shows that over the past week Bitcoin whales have capitalized on the crypto market rally to sell off 40,000 BTC worth approximately $1.4 billion.

This selling pressure partly explains why BTC has struggled to clear the $34,500 resistance.

However, the chart also shows that the selling frenzy has slowed down considerably since the weekend. This could mean that the large investors are consolidating as they wait for the next market moving signal. 

Strategic investors will pay rapt attention to the fresh US economy interest rates set to announced at upcoming FOMC meeting on November 1. A rate pause or a cut, could see the crypto whales begin to buy BTC in large volumes again. 

XRP, Toncoin (TON) and Solana (SOL) Emerge Top Gainers. 

While Bitcoin prices stagnated, XRP was priced at $0.60, scoring a 7% 24-hour rise to emerge the top performing mega-cap altcoin on Tuesday. 

Bullish investors are now anticipating that the Ripple-backed cryptocurrency, could be on its way to retest the 2023 high of $0.82 recorded in mid-July, following its famous victory over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Meanwhile, Toncoin (TON) price also raced up in the past 24 hours, coming in at $2.23, with jump of over 5%. 

Holders of the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, TON had experienced some fears after the token briefly retraced below $2 last week. However, the recent launch of its native self-custodial digital wallet seems to have reignited investor confidence. 

Likewise, Solana (SOL), the eighth largest digital asset by market cap, has continued its 2023 price discovery. After a entering a new yearly peak, it gained another 5% on Tueday to reach $36.30.