Crypto whales Display Unusual Behavior Amid Ongoing Russia Invasion in Ukraine.

Bitcoin And Ethereum Rebound As Whales Showed 5x More Trading Activity On War Day

Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, traders have portrayed unusual behavior in the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. 

Recall that the prices of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), among others dipped by a large margin in the early hours of yesterday, as most traders converted their crypto assets to stablecoins. 

However, unusual behavior was spotted by Santiment Feed as several traders saw the decrease in price as an opportunity to increase their crypto holdings. 

The resilience of high net worth investors pushed back the price of Bitcoin, alongside other digital currencies in the market, to higher levels. 

Cryptocurrency Recent Price Movement

As of yesterday, the cryptocurrency market suffered over 10% losses following a nationwide broadcast by Russian president Vladimir Putin declaring war on Ukraine. 

However, data on Coingecko showed that the market has recorded over 8% gain in the last 24 hours, as whale traders were observed buying the dip. 

Despite calls made by many people to Russia, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the country still chose to launch an invasion of Ukraine. 

Moments after Russia’s declaration of war, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price slumped from around $39,000 to below $35,000 in less than two hours, which represents an over 10% dip. 

In the same vein, Ethereum plummeted from around $2,700 to $2,300 at the time the pronouncement was made. 

Similarly, other cryptocurrencies in the top spot suffered nothing less than a 10% dip as many traders took to safety, converting a majority of their crypto holdings to stablecoin. 

According to Santiment Feed, whale investors’ dumping of cryptocurrency assets yesterday was five times more whale activity than a normal day. 

“Isolated in the past day of key high-tier whale activity to look at the 1-day percent change within each assets’ 90-day range of whale holdings. This is about 5x more activity than a typical day,” Santiment tweeted. 

? #Cryptocurrency #whales have had WILDLY different behavior since #war broke out. Isolated is the past day of key high-tier whale activity to look at the 1-day percent change within each assets' 90-day range of whale holdings. This is about 5x more activity than a typical day. pic.twitter.com/L9H35XMIoO

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 25, 2022

Fast forward a few hours later, another set of whale traders started taking advantage of the decreased prices to rack up their crypto holdings, thus boosting crypto prices. 

At the time of writing this line, the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin is up over 11%, ETH is up more than 10%, while the other cryptocurrencies in the top ten rankings have surged at least 10% in the last 24 hours. 

However, the surge in crypto prices does not imply that the market is now safe as there is a huge tendency of massive volatility in the coming days based on traders’ reaction to ongoing updates.  

As many investors and traders can tell you, trading cryptocurrencies can be exhausting and sometimes even take a toll on your health. Some may even feel addicted to the activity and need rehabilitation to escape their trading obsession.

Business Insider presents a report of an anonymous patient at Castle Craig Hospital in Scotland. The patient wanted to keep his identity confidential to avoid social judgment. Business Insider also claimed they had corroborated the story with hospital staff to ensure its veracity with the source’s permission.

According to the patient, he has always had an addictive personality since he was a teenager. He first started with drugs and alcohol and was even arrested for possession of narcotics. After the arrest, he decided to go into rehab at 22.

After the period of rehabilitation, he went on to have an everyday life, even getting a good job and a promising career.

“In my 30’s, I managed to find a good career. I was making £90,000 a year in the tunnel excavation business.”, the patient told business insider.

However, even with life “on track,” he ended up being tormented by this personality more linked to addictions; at the same time, he started trading in the stock market.

In 2015, he found cryptocurrencies, initially using Bitcoin to buy drugs on the Dark Web, still trading stocks. He then began to develop an obsession with Bitcoin chart patterns; eventually, this obsession led him to trade more and more of crypto.

“I remember the first time I laid eyes on a Bitcoin chart: Crypto was perfect. Crypto was similar to Nasdaq charts or stocks like an apple. The chart showed the growth of bitcoin and created a curve, beautiful, up and downs that I started to worship.”

Over time, the investor did nothing but trade, spending up to 8 hours a day trading, consuming narcotics, and watching charts. According to him, every 8-9 hours, he would make 100 trades, losing £1,000, gaining £5,000.

“After a while, I didn’t care anymore if I was winning or losing. all I wanted was to follow the charts.”

I wanted to become a millionaire but lost everything: The patient also said that his main goal was to become a millionaire, but that dream didn’t take long to distance herself from him.

“Eventually, I lost everything. I believed I had the intelligence, the opportunity, and the power to trade until I was a millionaire. Trading was like riding a roller coaster. I had ups and downs, but with each low, I fell more and more.”

By 2014 he was already in debt; the same year he was diagnosed with autism and addiction issues, that’s when he lost his job. In 2019 he declared personal bankruptcy.

“In five years, I lost everything I had worked hard to get. I lost my integrity, my trust, and my money.”

The situation reached a critical level, and the trader began to contemplate the possibility of suicide.

“I was seriously thinking suicide, but someone close supported me to get admitted to Castle Craig hospital, the only rehabilitation clinic that treats crypto trading addiction.”

In some cases, cryptocurrency trading addiction is similar to gambling habits, with moments of euphoria after profits and despair in losses. It is vital to have a solid mentality to be a trader, especially in short-term trades.

“If you are like me and gambling with the high risks of the market with full of fear, uncertainty, and insecurity about your trading – I would advise you to stop immediately. Recognize your value rather than running after millions. Seek help, talk to people, and get out of the game.”, concluded the patient.

Stress and anxiety are problems that accompany many traders and harm many others, as we have seen before. The crucial thing is to plan your traders, have an exit strategy before entering any traders, manage your risks, and most significantly, always take care of your health first.

With Bitcoin facing a downtrend, failing to recover from essential supports like $40,000,  many are in doubt whether it’s time to buy or it’s better not to take risk and sell BTC.

For Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a famous Mexican billionaire, it’s time to buy, and that in the future, anyone who listens to his advice will be very grateful to him.

Founder and president of Grupo Salinas, Banco Azteca, TV Azteca, and Elektra, Salinas is known for being a big supporter of Bitcoin.

He is primarily an advocate of the famous word ‘Hodl,’ i.e., Bitcoin investors keep their coins and never sell no matter what happens. Recently, he spoke again about BTC, stating that the time is to continue buying, taking advantage of the low price, and “forget to sell.”

“You have to buy bitcoin (keep buying when the price is low), then just hold your BTC, forget about selling… trust me, you’re going to thank me later.”

You have to buy #bitcoin (keep buying when the price is low), then just hold your #btc, forget about selling… trust me you’re going to thank me later ?? https://t.co/wpqpfc8N15

— Ricardo Salinas Pliego (@RicardoBSalinas) February 19, 2022

On Christmas, the Mexican Banking And Retail Corporation CEO said: ‘Get Rid Of Fiat Currencies, It’s Fake Paper, Fake Money… Invest In Bitcoin’. He also clarified that his Grupo Elektra would support the Bitcoin Lightning network.

His tweet responded to a Bitcoin Magazine post, which also urged investors not to sell their digital assets to the whales.

Over the past few months, Bitcoin’s history has been a complicated one for investors. After hitting its all-time high, it started to decline, dropping from the $69k mark to the current lows of 35K. So many are worried about the market, will it rise again? Is it now the end of crypto? Well, for some, the answer is always the same: ‘HODL.’