In Bitcoin's Path Back To $50,000, Institutional Investors, Whales Battle Miners

As Bitcoin price BTC/USD trudges back on the path to $50,000, whales are battling the other dominant players — miners,  in the backdrop. 

What Happened: On Sunday, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said on Twitter, “It's a whale war, and you know who got the real power.”

Ki observed that while whales and U.S. institutional investor parameters were signaling BUY, Miners were indicating SELL.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

The analyst posted a chart indicating the money flow of BTC transferred to and from affiliated miners’ wallets. 

It's a whale war, and you know who got the real power.

US Institutional Investors
- Coinbase Outflow = STRONG BUY
- Coinbase Premium = BUY

BTC Whales
- BTC Reserve = BUY
- Stablecoin Inflow TXs = BUY

Miners
- Miner Outflows = SELL
- Miner to Exchange Flows = SELL pic.twitter.com/fhVBp8qocm

— Ki Young Ju 주기영 (@ki_young_ju) February 28, 2021

The apex cryptocurrency traded 0.32% lower at $46,369.59 at press time. BTC hit a 24-hour high of $46,576.97, according to CoinMarketCap data. 

Why It Matters: Earlier, Ki urged his followers on social media not to blame mining pool owners as the outflows came from affiliated miners, who have participated in the mining pool at least once. 

The analyst’s Twitter posts spurred a robust debate with some people observing that miners have the power in the current power equation, while others alluding to collusion between whales and miners.

Ok so you're saying that those 19 whales that have done direct business with F2pool are systematically dumping at the SAME time in a coordinated fashion.. I mean why wouldn't they, they all dump, use 100x leverage to short and recollect all the bitcoin they dumped with premium..

— TempleTuff (@HeavyGreat) February 28, 2021

Bitcoin has fallen 24% in the past seven days leading up to Sunday, making it the worst week for the cryptocurrency since March 2020.

The cryptocurrency is up nearly 60% year-to-date at press time, buoyed by institutional interest, including from Tesla Inc. TSLA, MicroStrategy Inc. MSTR, Square Inc. SQ, and PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL.