Bitcoin Price Insights: Whales Bought $1.4 Billion BTC after ETH Futures ETF Approval 

Key Insights:

• Bitcoin (BTC) price held the $28,300 support on Tuesday, October 17, marking the first time BTC traded above $28,000 for two consecutive days since August. 
• Corporate entities and high net-worth investors have accumulated 40,000 BTC since US firms received regulatory greenlight to launch ETH Futures ETFs in late September. 
• Vital technical indicators show how Bitcoin’s prolonged consolidation phase at the $28,500 range could trigger a price breakout above $30,000. 

Bitcoin (BTC) price held the $28,300 support on Tuesday, October 17, marking the first time BTC traded above $28,000 for two consecutive days since August. On-chain indicators show that corporate entities have increased their demand for BTC since the ETH Futures ETFs were approved in late September.

Whale Investors Have Accumulated 50,000 BTC Since ETH Futures ETF Approval

In late September, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the green light for regulated TradFi trading platforms and fund managers to offer Ethereum Futures ETF products. 

Quite surprisingly, Ethereum’s price performance in the aftermath of the bullish news has been underwhelming. But, a vital on-chain indicator shows that institutional investors have actually been accumulating Bitcoin instead.   

Bitcoin whales (i.e., investors holding 100 to 100,000 BTC) had a cumulative balance of 10.82 million BTC on September 26. But they have now increased their holdings by another 50,000 BTC as of October 18, according to the Santiment chart below. 

Valued at the current Simple Moving Average (SMA-30) price of $27,175, the newly-acquired 50,000 BTC are worth approximately $1.4 billion. 

The Whales Wallet Balances chart above tracks real-time changes in the balances of large institutional investors. The 50,000 BTC ($1.4 billion) accumulation over the last three weeks has brought the whales’ cumulative balances to 10.87 million BTC. 

Notably, the last time the whales held this much BTC was on June 14, when the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase triggered a market-wide sell-off. 

The timing of the BTC accumulation correlates closely to the Ethereum Futures ETF approval announced around Sept 27. Presumably, this has allayed investors’ fears that the US government would conduct a full-on crackdown on the Crypto industry. 

If this analysis holds true, the BTC whale accumulation could continue in the weeks ahead and further drive up Bitcoin prices. 

Bitcoin Price Prediction: $28,600 is the Target to Beat

Bitcoin (BTC)  is currently trading at $28,300. But the whale accumulation wave seems to be driving the bullish momentum. The daily time frame technical analysis using the Relative Strength Index (63.85) shows that Bitcoin is gradually approaching the overbought territory.

Meanwhile, the Bollinger Bands indicator shows that BTC faces strong resistance at the $28,630 area. If the bullish whales can push past that sell-wall, they can anticipate further upswing toward $30,000.  

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction, October 18, 2023. | Source: TradingView

But on the downside, the $27,5530 range could be one to watch for the bears. Failure to defend that support territory could trigger a prolonged reversal toward $26,430.