This Week in Crypto: Whales on Hunt, Lessons From Bitcoin Canon, and Nigerians Suffer

Contents

1 Hayes Sermonizes From Bitcoin Holy Writ
2 Bitcoin Whales Feed Passively
3 But Ethereum Whales Are Hunting
4 Can Two Whales Sit Atop the Food Chain?
5 The Hunt May Be Over for P2P Traders in Nigeria
6 Crypto – Socially Speaking
7 Top 10 Crypto Performers This Week
8 Top crypto platforms in the US | November 2023

Hayes said on Sunday that players like BlackRock risk turning Bitcoin into an institutional asset. Also this week, BeInCrypto examined the moves of the biggest Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) whales, including one whose success reveals Ethereum’s earning potential.

Hayes Sermonizes From Bitcoin Holy Writ

With an almost religious fervor, Hayes described why institutions threaten the existence of Bitcoin. If these behemoths introduce crypto mining ETFs, they could become “agents of the state” designed to keep citizens inside the traditional money system for tax reasons.

By hoarding the asset, big companies would keep Bitcoin stagnant and not circulating like a currency. Institutions raising Bitcoin’s price do so at the expense of its soul, Hayes argued.

It doesn’t seem like institutions are listening, though. On Thursday, BlackRock appeared to have registered a new Ethereum Trust in Delaware following its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application in June.

And many market participants welcome the price increases that have made holders profitable again. Is Hayes right? Only time will tell.

Bitcoin Whales Feed Passively

In the meantime, crypto investors at the top of the Bitcoin food chain are cashing in. On Tuesday, BeInCrypto looked at how the biggest private wallets are investing.

Wallets holding a whopping $9.1 billion were examined using data from blockchain explorers. It turns out that 80% of the whales investigated have been dormant since their initial purchase. The following addresses receive automatic payments, which are the only active transactions that occur regularly:

Activity at Wallet Address bc1qjasf9z3h7w3jspkhtgatgpyvvzgpa2wwd2lr0eh5tx44reyn2k7sfc27a4. Source: bitinfocharts

Only one wallet, with an initial deposit of $1.9 billion, was active in the last few months, with its owner withdrawing $1,000 in September. The rest are earning passive income through regular automatic payments.

But Ethereum Whales Are Hunting

While the largest Bitcoin whales are snoozing, the next apex predator is waking up. On Nov. 2, a crypto whale earned a cool profit of $5.41 million through carefully-timed trades.

This address sent 24,495 ETH ($45 million) to Binance and used an Ethereum price increase to net themselves a profit of $5.47 million. Two days later, the whale deposited 31.8 million USDT into Binance and withdrew 8,698 ETH ($16 million) some hours later.

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Ethereum Price Performance. Source: CoinMarketCap

The success rate of this whale’s Ethereum trades is 87.5%, boasting seven out of 12 profitable transactions since February. Their activity suggests that Ethereum can be extremely lucrative for those who know how to time trades.

Can Two Whales Sit Atop the Food Chain?

Crypto investor Layah Heilpern is biding her time before the next bull run. The influencer has been buying up wads of Ethereum, which she plans to sell when markets pick up.

On Nov. 6, the investor outlined her investment thesis. She argues that Ethereum is a safe asset because the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not deemed it a security.

“Safer than all the alts and still smaller market cap than bitcoin so will pump harder when money flows in.”

And this may be closer than even she thought. According to QCP Capital,

“ETH’s outperformance over BTC overnight can be attributed to BlackRock’s 19b-4 filing with NASDAQ for an Ethereum Trust, which will herald BlackRock’s filing for a spot ETH ETF in the near future. We expected a similar playbook to when BlackRock first submitted an application for a spot BTC ETF.”

The Hunt May Be Over for P2P Traders in Nigeria

Once a vibrant crypto hub in Africa, Nigerians are running out of options. Following the exit of Paxful, a popular P2P marketplace that once attracted significant volumes before its exit, Binance may be next on regulators’ radars.

The charismatic yet mysterious founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted a cryptic post that fueled rumors that the Central Bank of Nigeria was trying to manipulate P2P rates. The national currency has fallen 30% against the US dollar-backed stablecoin USDT.

USDT Falls 30% Against NGN. Source: Binance

The central bank may want to limit dollar use after its methods to boost the Naira have succeeded. It has cleared $6.7 billion worth of debts with Citibank, Stanbic IBTC, and Standard Chartered Bank.