The bitcoin (BTC) held in one Coinbase Custody wallet jumped 2,500 BTC soon after BlackRock filed for a spot bitcoin ETF last week, data from analytics tool CryptoQuant shows.
Coinbase Custody is a service offered by the crypto exchange that allows institutional investors to store large amounts of tokens, such as bitcoin, in a secure wallet. It will serve as the custodian for bitcoin held on BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, if the request is approved by regulators.
A wallet tracked by CryptoQuant shows the bitcoin sent to the custodial wallet came from Coinbase (COIN). A custodial wallet is different from a cold or hot wallet that Coinbase uses to store customers’ holdings, suggesting a large player probably bought the bitcoin on Coinbase and sent the holdings to the custodian wallet, as transaction data shows.
The wallet previously held over 5,000 bitcoin that were deposited between May 19 and May 20, the data show.
CryptoQuant analyst Bradley Park said in a Telegram message that BlackRock’s ETF filing may have spurred positive sentiment among bitcoin holders and investors, which could explain the transaction.
“The BlackRock effect has positively affected market sentiment and even institutions’ bitcoin buying,” Park said.
Trading volumes on Coinbase have nearly doubled in the past week as bitcoin prices rose 20%. CoinGecko data shows over $2 billion worth of tokens were traded on the exchange in the past 24 hours, double the daily average of $1 billion since the start of June.
Bitcoin trading pairs against the U.S. dollar and tether (USDT) accounted for $900 million of these volumes suggesting demand among traders as the asset broke the $30,000 mark on Thursday.
Edited by Sheldon Reback.