- More than 55% of the total stablecoins in circulation were in whale custody.
- Stablecoin reserves on exchanges have increased significantly since the beginning of the year.
One of the biggest bullish signals for the crypto market is increasing reserves of stablecoins. This is because they are widely used to purchase other cryptocurrencies while retaining their fiat value.
Whales hoard stablecoins
According to an analysis company in the chain SantimentWhale portfolios with over $5 million in assets have experienced stable coin accumulation over the past three weeks.
In fact, this cohort has acquired more than 5% of the total supply of these leading coins, including USDT, USDC, DAI, and TUSD, in the past three weeks. As of April 1, more than 55% of the total stablecoins in circulation were in whale custody.
Source: Santiment
Buying pressure to increase?
Santiment agreed with the theory that whales could wait for the market to correct significantly, allowing them to buy in bulk and add to their Bitcoin. [BTC] positions.
Interestingly, the market reversed itself on April 1. AMBCrypto examined CryptoQuant’s data and found net inflows of stablecoins into cryptocurrency exchanges, lending credence to the aforementioned story.
Source: CryptoQuant
Stablecoin reserves on exchanges have increased significantly since the beginning of the year. At the time of writing, nearly 20.36 billion coins were held in wallets, the highest in more than a year.
Historically, the rise in stablecoin deposits has preceded a sharp rise in Bitcoin’s market price. Therefore, there was a higher chance of increased Bitcoin volatility and recovery in the next two weeks.
Source: CryptoQuant
Top stablecoins in high demand in 2024
Meanwhile, the global stablecoin cap continued to rise, topping $143 billion for the first time since 2022. The recovery was led by the two main assets: USDT and USDC.
The world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has continued last year’s positive momentum, growing 13% since the start of this year to reach a market value of a whopping $104 billion.
The real success story, however, is the USDC, which rose 33% to $32 billion last year after facing major downsides last year.
Source: Glassnode