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The number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC has risen in recent weeks.
Bitcoin (BTC) addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC, the so-called whales, have started accumulating more tokens during the recent market recovery. As of Feb. 10, the total supply in these addresses was 8.096 million BTC versus 7.95 million on Jan. 24, according to data from Coin Metrics.
The buying sentiment among the richest crypto investors picked momentum during Bitcoin's recovery in the past two weeks as BTC rebounded from its 2022 low of $33,000 on Jan. 24 to around $43,500 on Feb. 11.
Small Bitcoin investors, addresses that hold less than 1 BTC, so-called "fishes," also joined the accumulation spree during the recent Bitcoin price rebound.
Meanwhile, data resource Ecoinometrics shows the Coin Metrics data in the form of clusters, showing a synchronous accumulation behavior among the Bitcoin whales and fishes.
Interestingly, the clusters looked the same as they did in the days leading up to BTC's record high of $69,000 in November 2021.
"Once more this cycle, this rebound in price correlates pretty well with both the small fish and the whales addresses buying simultaneously for an extended period of time, wrote Nick, the analyst at Ecoinometrics, in a note published Fed. 7, adding:
"I don't know if this signal is going to continue being predictive of a sustained rally, but hey, for now it is working fine."
A report published by CoinShares this week also showed a rise in inflow across crypto funds last week. Notably, the capital injections into these funds quadrupled to $85 billion, with $71 million flowing into Bitcoin-focused investment products, suggesting renewed institutional interest is also buoying BTC's price recovery.
Nick suggested that Bitcoin has enough room to grow its valuation in the coming months, citing a so-called "aggregated risk score," derived from four parameters that are: risk of overextended market, risk of low-demand, high-supply situation, risk of holders taking profits, and risk of increased selling pressure.
Related: Bitcoin rejects sell-off as 7.5% US inflation fails to keep BTC down for long
The outcome is represented in colors, with red and blue suggesting a hot and cool market, respectively. The hotter the market, the higher the selling pressure.
"Right now it is just warming up," the Ecoinometrics analyst said, adding that "in theory, there is no obstacle to the price rising much higher except for the lack of momentum."
Meanwhile, on-chain data tracking planform WhaleMap projected $46,200-$49,000 as Bitcoin's "current resistance range," citing higher trading activity inside the price area in the past.
Similarly, the firm noted that the $41,400-$42,400 range is now acting as support, as shown in the chart below.
"Closest on-chain resistance according to whale accumulations is only at ~$47,000," it noted.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Millions of people in America could soon be able to buy Bitcoin from their bank accounts following a partnership led by NYDIG and Q2.
New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has partnered with Q2, a firm specializing in providing digital services to financial institutions, to provide access to Bitcoin (BTC) for bank account holders in the United States.
According to a release issued on Wednesday, the partnership will potentially open up Bitcoin buying, selling and custody channels to about 18.3 million bank customers in America.
Indeed, Q2 provider internet banking services to about 30% of the Top 100 U.S. banks and serves over a tenth of the country’s digital banking customers.
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, NYDIG began working towards providing Bitcoin trading services to Americans via their bank accounts. At the time, the firm partnered with fintech outfit Fidelity National Information Services to provide U.S. lenders with the ability to offer crypto trading services to their customers.
Apart from Q2, NYDIG has also partnered with cloud-based digital banking service provider Alkami and global payment services outfit Fiserv to enable Bitcoin access for more customers of financial institutions.
Detailing the specifics of its partnership with NYDIG in a separate announcement, Fiserv revealed that its collaboration was tailored towards banks and credit unions amid the growing interest for BTC.
First Foundation Bank, a California-based financial institution, is reportedly working with NYDIG and Fiserv to onboard Bitcoin trading and custody for its customers. Back in April, the bank’s parent company, First Foundation Inc., invested in NYDIG to provide clients with access to Bitcoin-based investment products.
Related: US banks to allow Bitcoin trading in 2021, says NYDIG execs
On the Alkami front, NYDIG is now part of the firm’s Gold Partner Program — a significant step in enabling banks and credit unions to offer BTC buying and custody products to their customers.
Commenting on the importance of these collaborations, NYDIG co-founder and CEO Robert Gutmann declared that these partnerships were necessary to make Bitcoin readily accessible via legacy financial institutions.
According to Gutmann, such integration efforts will help to ensure the continued expansion of the Bitcoin network.