The price of bitcoin has dropped 10% since April 9th. But during that same period, whales holding between 100 BTC and 10,000 BTC accumulated an additional 57,578 BTC, as revealed by Santiment.

This difference between bitcoin price and whale accumulation goes against previously observed trends. In the past, high accumulation whales often coincided with bull runs or after market declines.

WHALE ACCUMULATION WATCHERS PREDICT BTC PRICE WILL RECOVERY

Bitcoin whales are closely watched by market analysts, and their behavioral patterns are often factored into price predictions.

But the current trend for those holding a significant amount of BTC to typically increase their balances when the bitcoin price is trending down is inconsistent with previously observed price patterns. Instead of buying when BTC was on the rise, since mid-April when Bitcoin hit its year-to-date high, whales have been hoarding.

Of course, if whale accumulation rates continue to increase, this will have an impact on demand for BTC and could push prices up.

BITCOIN DOMINANCE RISE TO HIGHEST LEVEL IN TWO YEARS

In addition to whale accumulation, recent Bitcoin Dominance shows that the cryptocurrency is a safe haven for investors during times of market volatility.

According to TradingView, the Bitcoin Dominance rate is currently at more than 49%, the highest rate since April 2021. That means almost half of the value locked in the crypto market is in the form of BTC.

One factor behind this recent spike is the parallel collapse in prices of major altcoins. With tokens like Solana and Polygon's MATIC falling more than 20% in a chaotic period on Saturday morning, the relative stability of Bitcoin's price helped mitigate some of the major losses.