Bitcoin whale games get traders nervous as 12K BTC appears for sale
2024.08.09 11:17
Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $60,000 at the Aug. 9 Wall Street open as traders eyed “unreasonable” whale moves.
BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
Bitcoin order book moves spark suspicion
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed the latest BTC price uptick running out of steam after reaching $62,775 on Bitstamp.
Now down 3% versus the daily open, BTC/USD faced significant resistance above the $62,000 mark, with analysis suggesting that this could be intentional manipulation.
“Someone placed large sell orders from $61200-$62500, Total 12K BTC,” monitoring resource CoinGlass responded on X reviewing the Binance order book.
“This is somewhat unreasonable.”
Binance BTC/USDT order book liquidity heatmap. Source: CoinGlass/X
Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades noted the imbalance between bid and ask liquidity, with buyers still lacking volume from the day prior.
“$750M in orders above & $300M in orders below price. And that’s just on Binance,” he told X followers.
“This could temporarily cool off volatility for a while as price is stuck between these walls. Keep in mind, walls can get pulled at any time. Some consolidation makes sense I feel like.”
BTC liquidation heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
As Cointelegraph has reported, large-volume traders often place a series of orders above or below the spot price to move the market in a given direction. The practice, known as spoofing, is commonplace across crypto markets.
Mixed thoughts on BTC price status quo
Traders broadly remained at odds over BTC price strength.
Related: Bitcoin price must flip $62K to avoid worst ‘death cross’ consequences
While some expected another sizeable downward move, others looked to long-term trendlines as proof of a sustained recovery and potential further upside next.
BTC/USDT chart. Source: Moustache/X
“$BTC is back above the daily EMA 200 line. A reclaim of this line has always led to a sharp rise in prices in recent years,” popular trader Moustache commented, referring to the 200-day exponential moving average at $59,438.
Trader and analyst Rekt Capital hoped that bulls could muster a downtrend breakout by the daily close.
Source: Rekt Capital
Luke Martin, host of the Stacks Podcast, noted that Bitcoin had its second-best day in history in terms of market cap growth on Aug. 8.
This grew from $1.08 trillion to $1.21 trillion in a single daily candle, while Bitcoin’s dominance of the total crypto market cap increased by around 0.4%.
Dominance hit a maximum of 58%, Cointelegraph reported, notching a one-year high in the process.
Bitcoin market cap 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
