BTC (BTC) surged to as high as $68,850 early this (25th) morning, up over 5.5% from yesterday's low of $65,251, showing a strong rebound. As of the time of writing, it has slightly retreated and is trading at $67,903, up about 1.22% in the past 24 hours.
BTC whale holdings reach new all-time high
Whether BTC will continue to rise or continue to fall remains unknown. However, Baro Virtual, a certified BTC researcher on CryptoQuant, wrote in a post last night stating that BTC whales currently hold about 670,000 BTC, a new all-time high, surpassing the previous high of over 400,000 BTC in July 2020, and analyzed why he believes this is "undoubtedly an optimistic long-term signal".
According to his explanation, the chart shows that when whale holdings are at a relatively high positive value, BTC tends to be in a sideways trend or a moderate local decline, "from a medium to long-term perspective, this accumulation phase can be said to be the calm before the storm".
It is only when whales gradually reduce their holdings until their holdings reach a negative percentage change that the explosive rise in BTC price truly begins.
However, he also wrote that if the BTC all-time high is not updated between now and November 28 (± 21 days) of the US presidential election, "this will indicate that the current bull market cycle has serious problems, and the situation will worsen".
Last week, Cointelegraph reported that the recent BTC whale hoarding trend is similar to the trend in 2020, with BTC rising 550% from July 2020 to January 2021. The current ratio of BTC whales on spot exchanges has reached the highest level since 2020, and over the past six months, whale wallets (holding over 1,000 BTC) have accumulated over 1.5 million BTC.
Standard Chartered: BTC to reach $73,000 on US election day
With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, according to The Block and Cointelegraph, Geoff Kendrick, the global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, analyzed in a report on Thursday that BTC price could reach $73,000 on November 5 (US presidential election day). His forecast is based on an analysis of BTC derivatives and trading volume indicators.
Our base case is that by election day, the BTC price will rise to around $73,000, slightly below the $73,800 all-time high set in March.
He also estimated that if Trump wins the election, the options parity data indicates that once the election results are out, BTC price could rise by about 4%, and the total gain in the following days could be as high as 10%.
He also said that the open interest in BTC call options expiring on December 27 with a strike price of $80,000 is very large, indicating that BTC may quickly move towards that level. "If the Republicans sweep Congress, our year-end BTC target could be raised to $125,000."
However, if Kamala Harris wins, he estimates that BTC may initially drop, but will still rise to around $75,000 by the end of 2024. He also added that the BTC price drop to $65,200 on Thursday may be the last dip before the US presidential election.
Further Reading: Standard Chartered Bank Predicts: If Trump Wins, SOL Will Surge 5x, BTC to Hit $200,000 by 2025
BlackRock CEO: BTC will rise regardless of election outcome
Not only did Kendrick express optimism about a Trump victory boosting BTC, but an executive at the crypto asset management firm Bitwise also predicted that if Trump wins, BTC price will surge to $92,000. The largest crypto options exchange Deribit also forecasts that with a Trump victory, BTC will reach $80,000 by the end of November.
However, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink believes that BTC will rise regardless of the election outcome.
