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Immutable (IMX) Up By 23% In A Single Day, Analyst Suspects Market Manipulation

IMX, native token of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Immutable X, recorded massive gains on Thursday, soaring by over 23% within the last 24 hours. Before this price gain, IMX had been relatively stable all week, hovering around the $0.52 price zone, according to data from Coingecko.

Behind IMX’s Rise, Analysts Points To Price Manipulation

Although there may be no clear reasons for the token’s positive price movement, Chinese reporter Colin Wu speculated about potential price speculation. 

According to a post on X by Wu, 10.95 million of the token, valued at $8.1 million, were transferred to the Upbit exchange from several other crypto exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Bybit, Crypto.com, Gate, etc. 

Following these transactions, the token surged from $0.56 to $0.74, representing a 34.5% price gain. Wu has stated that Korean traders are “behind this move.” The Upbit exchange is mainly popular in South Korea, dominating over 83% of the nation’s crypto market.

Providing more insight into these transactions, on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain reports that these transfers to Upbit were sent to the same wallet with the address “0x2F77.” This indicates a single crypto whale was likely behind this price surge. 

Within three hours on Thursday, 12.54 million of the token, valued at $9.45 million, was transferred to “0x2F77,” allowing this address to become the 9th largest holder of the token, owning 20.4 million worth $15 million. 

Furthermore, Lookonchain also revealed that several IMX investors opted to take profit following the token’s price gain. These investors include GSR Markets, a crypto investment firm that moved 2 million IMX, worth $1.52 million, to Binance right after IMX rose.

In addition, three investors withdrew 3.5 million IMX, valued at $2.3 million, from the Foundation Treasury Locked wallet and may be planning a market dump. Following such transactions, it is no surprise that IMX soon experienced a price decline of about 13.33% a few hours after its boost.

IMX Gets Listed On Japanese Exchange

In other news, IMX has also been listed on the Japanese exchange Coincheck. According to a blog post by the crypto exchange on Thursday, IMX will now be eligible for its various services, including Coincheck NFT and  Coincheck crypto lending service. 

In addition to IMX, Coincheck also announced listing other cryptocurrencies, namely Apecoin (APE) and AXS, the governance token of the Axie Infinity gaming metaverse. 

At the time of writing, the IMX trades at around $0.64, with a price loss of 1.8% in the last hour. Based on more data from Coingecko, the token’s daily trading volume rose by 238.20%, valued at $808.50 million.

IMX

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Bitcoin Whales Wreck Bears, This Is What Happened Last Time They Were Active

Bitcoin whales have become active once again. While whale activity is normal and to be expected, the rate at which they purchase and accumulate coins can point to further movement in the market. Given that these investors control a large enough volume to affect the price of bitcoin, watching their every move can be beneficial as shown bypass data.

When whales begin moving BTC in large volumes, it can either signal a market dump or pump. In the same vein, it can also who how big money is dealing with the digital asset. These addresses which hold 1,000 or more bitcoin on their balance have significantly impacted the market movement with their accumulation trend in the past. Now, again, they have begun to accumulate.

Bitcoin Whales Are Stocking Up

Santiment has reported that the bitcoin mega whales are coming out of their shells to stock up on more of the asset. These whales who hold at least 1,000 BTC on their balances have taken purchasing bitcoin at a rapid rate. Over the span of 7 days, these wallets have stocked up on more than 220K BTC, almost $10 bitcoin worth of the digital asset.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Settles Above $43,000, But What Does The 4-Year Cycle Say?

This comes at a time when the price of bitcoin had dipped and the market had plunged into extreme fear. This meant that a lot of investors were wary of putting money into the market. But not these whales it seems. In one of the most rapid accumulation trends, these whales have now added a combined 1.06% of BTC’s total supply in a little over a month.

Santiment notes that the last time a rapid accumulation trend like this was recorded was two years ago in December of 2019.

🐳 Mega whales of #Bitcoin have accumulated significantly the past 7 weeks. Addresses with 1,000 $BTC or more have added a combined 220,000 $BTC to their combined wallets since December 23rd, the most rapid accumulation we've seen since September, 2019. https://t.co/RdVAg9FcP7 pic.twitter.com/gL1nJ18hyA

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 8, 2022

What Happened The Last Time Whales Accumulated?

As with any historical data, the accumulation of bitcoin by these whales has often had a profound impact on the market. Buying such a large amount of BTC in such a short period of time will no doubt have effects on the supply of the digital asset and by extension, the value of the asset.

Related Reading | XRP Price Surges – Is Ripple Winning The Fight Against SEC?

As noted in the report by Santiment, bitcoin whales had done the same thing back on December 23rd, 2019. Now, this was a pivotal time for the subsequent bull rally as it had begun in the next year. A significant uptick was noted in the value of the asset following the rapid accumulation by whales. This had seen an uptrend that continued until the market entered a full-blown bull rally.

Whales accumulate BTC before 2020 rally | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

This is not to say that a bull rally is expected to immediately follow such an accumulation trend. However, it shows a strong correlation that a trend like this where supply is reduced helps to signal subsequent growth for an asset.

Combined with market sentiment moving out of fear territory into the positive, indicators point towards a continued uptrend. Although only a break above $46,000 would signal that the bull has effectively been triggered.

Featured image from Bitcoin News, chart from TradingView.com

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Ethereum Whales Quietly Filled Up On ETH While Broader Market Panicked

Ethereum crumbled with the market during the last crash and is yet to recover to previous levels. The crash was characterized by sell-offs and liquidations from all angles, which continued even when the price dumped further. Fear of a bear market sparked this as investors wanted to get out before the price fell further. But not everyone followed this trend of dumping.

Whales have always been known to move differently from smaller investors when it comes to the crypto market and this time was no different. While investors panic sold their holdings at low prices, these whales quietly gobbled up the ETH being dumped on the market, increasing their dominance in the market once again.

Whales Fill Up On ETH

In the last few weeks, whales have taken advantage of the declining market values to buy cryptocurrencies at what can be essentially said to be a discount. The price of Ethereum had dumped as low as $2,100 following the crash, leaving even more room for the whales to increase their holdings. Smaller investors had followed suit but only after whales had bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ETH.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Whales Take Advantage Of Market Crash To Gobble Up Millions In BTC

During this time, the number of addresses holding more than 10,000 ETH on their balances had also increased significantly. These whales had altogether purchased more than $500 million in ETH in only a couple of weeks.

ETH recovers to $2,400 post-crash | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

This renewed support from whales and smaller investors had worked to slow down the decline of the digital asset. But proved to be not enough to spark a rebound back up to previous values. Despite growing support from these large investors, the market has remained in extreme fear, pointing to intense wariness from investors. This has caused them to hold back from putting any more money in the market.

Ethereum Struggles To Stay Afloat

Since the crash towards the low $2,100, Ethereum has had a hard time recovering in the market. While a bounce-back that was triggered by pioneer cryptocurrency bitcoin saw it recover above $2,400, it has not recorded much in the way of upward momentum since then.

Related Reading | Which Cryptocurrencies Suffered The Worse Collapse Since All-Time Highs?

Indicators point to the week playing out with continued low momentum for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It had previously tested the $2,700 point on Wednesday but had promptly taken a beating down that brought it back to $2,400.

ETH is trading below its 5-day, 20-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages for the first time in a year. Market sentiments remain bearish with more downtrend expected to come as support from whales taper off.

As of the time of writing, the digital asset is trading at $2,461, down 2.97% in the last 24 hours. Trading volume is up significantly over the same time period but is yet to translate into a higher value for the asset.

Featured image from Nairametrics, chart from TradingView.com