Bitcoin Traders Cautioned as Whales Trigger Sharp Price Drop

Content: Bitcoin is experiencing its most significant drop in nearly a month, catching the market off guard on Monday, shattering the optimism, also known as "hopium," for continued price growth until the SEC approves the BTC spot ETF in January 2024. However, the sudden market downturn has left investors surprised, leading to this optimism being shattered, attributed to the "whale panic" caused by significant whale selling.

Daily Market Momentum Report: Bitcoin Whales Trigger Market Plunge
Bitcoin's price has nearly dropped below $40,000 in the last 24 hours, with contracts worth over $340 million liquidated in just a few minutes. Although the exact reason behind this collapse is uncertain, the primary cause seems to be whale selling. This is evidenced by the Coinbase Premium Gap (CPG) registering a sharp decrease to -250. Simply put, CPG is an indicator that tracks the difference between the Bitcoin price listed on Coinbase (USD pair) and Binance (USDT pair). It provides an idea of whether US-dominant investors (Coinbase) or global users (Binance) are buying or selling more than the other. Whenever this premium gap is positive, US investors are considered to be driving buying pressure, while negative values point to global users, creating selling pressure.

However, the significant drop in this index on Monday indicates whale intervention. This was further confirmed by the decline in reserves on the Binance exchange, noting the sale of around 16,000 BTC worth over $671 million accumulated over the past week.

This sell-off has caused panic among users, resulting in a 7% intraday trading drop, pushing BTC to a low of $40,654. Cryptocurrency has since recovered, trading at $41,839 at the time of writing.

Since the beginning of December, traders have been limiting exposure to high leverage in the derivatives market. The collapse on Monday may heighten this skepticism, causing traders to be cautious until January.
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