Coinbase Whales Keep Bitcoin Price Stuck Around $18k, But ATH Already Hit in 5 Currencies

It was in the middle of last week that Bitcoin first broke above the $18,000 level.

Before November 18, 2020, the last time we saw BTC hitting $18k was in December 2017 when the digital asset was retracing the all-time high.

We have been primarily keeping between the $18,000 and $19,000 range for the past five days. Just about 8% away from the peak of $20,000, BTC is yet to make a strong breakout above $19,000.

While the leading digital asset is struggling to make a new ATH in US Dollar, BTC has already made a new one in other fiat currencies. As Arcane Research noted,

“Bitcoin vs Argentine Peso, Turkish Lira, Brazilian Real and Norwegian Krone are already higher than the peak in Dec '17.”

But even for USD, a new high won’t be too far off either once people are done with taking off some profits. It is possible that those who bought BTC during the bull run of 2017 took it as an opportunity to sell their BTC. As on-chain analyst Willy Woo said,

“Old hands have been selling into this rally since the start of Nov (BTC @$13k).”

While peaks in Bitcoin days destroyed used to be seen as a bad sign for the market because “old coins have more experienced masters, thus smarter money; this would predict a price drop,” Woo said this is not always the case.

With strong fundamentals and so much FOMO going on, the market has been overheated locally; as such, some corrections are expected. He said,

“I'd be very surprised if we break all-time-high on the first try without a rejection, or consolidation, before a second run at it.”

Grayscale #bitcoin trust volumes on OTC markets up strong this quarter pic.twitter.com/iDjRWHWSgN

— skew (@skewdotcom) November 21, 2020

The halt in the uptrend of the BTC price could further be because of the whales.

“Too many BTC whales on Coinbase,” observed Ki-Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant.

Whale ratio, the relative size of the top 10 inflows to total inflows, of Coinbase is currently around 97%. Usually, when they are active, meaning over 90%, Bitcoin's price is likely to be sideways or bearish.

This is why Young Ju, while long-term bullish expects the leading digital asset to “face some corrections or sideways until whales become inactive on spot exchanges.”

Bitcoin (BTC) Live Price