The amount of Bitcoin held on the United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has fallen to its lowest level in nine years as users have moved a significant portion of their assets out of the exchange. According to a report by CryptoQuant, whales transferred approximately 1 billion dollars worth of 18,000 Bitcoin from Coinbase over the weekend, with transfer values ranging between 45 million and 171 million dollars.
Notable Data from Coinbase
Coinbase’s public order book currently contains about 394,000 Bitcoin, estimated to be worth 20.5 billion dollars. The movement of Bitcoin assets away from centralized exchanges by whales is considered a bullish sign as it indicates less Bitcoin could be sold. However, users on social media are divided over the nature of these transfers.
Some investors believe that funds are being moved to storage wallets in anticipation of a price increase due to a supply shock that will be created by the Bitcoin halving event occurring in just two months. Others think that the transferred funds could be used to provide liquidity for over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
Another group suggests that the funds might be moving to a different platform and that these are not individual withdrawal transactions, arguing that the amount should be much lower since most of the funds on these exchanges are not owned by them.
The Halving Process and Bitcoin
With each Bitcoin halving cycle, the amount of new Bitcoin entering the market is cut in half, creating a supply shortage as demand increases. The next Bitcoin halving event will occur at block height 740,000 in April. The block reward for miners will be reduced from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin per block. The upcoming halving comes amid the approval of 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States in January, indicating significant institutional interest.
While currently about 900 Bitcoin are mined daily, Grayscale is recording daily outflows of approximately 100 million dollars, yet the daily net inflows to the Bitcoin ETF space are about half a billion dollars or roughly 9,650 Bitcoin in value.
After the halving event in April, the daily production of Bitcoin will drop to around 450 Bitcoin, and institutional demand is expected to continue to rise. This substantial supply-demand gap has historically led to price increases for Bitcoin, with all-time high levels seen within a year after the halving event.
