Santiment’s Brian recently appeared on Thinking Crypto’s latest episode, where he shared his views about the altcoin rally. Brian spoke about the top 50 meme coins by market cap and said that Dogecoin seems to be dead, while Shiba Inu has shown little change in the last 30 days. Some of the biggest gainers include MAGA (up 178%), Pepe (up 70%) and Floki (up 73%).
Brian confirmed that social volume changes and price changes are critical indicators. While most coins have seen price increases, a few have declined. Social volume is particularly important for speculative sectors like meme coins. Dogecoin’s mentions have decreased, whereas Pepe is being discussed more than twice as often as last month, which could lead to further volatility.
The host then said that Bitcoin is seeing a rise in ETF inflows again, with interest from major players like BlackRock and Fidelity. Bitcoin is trying to move upwards to reach a new all-time high, though it’s currently pulling back a bit.
Reacting to the same, Brian said that regardless of whether you’re trading in meme coins, AI, or any other sector, the health of Bitcoin is crucial. If Bitcoin collapses, other coins will likely follow suit. Conversely, if Bitcoin breaks a new all-time high and moves toward $80,000, other altcoins will also benefit.
One key metric for Bitcoin is the activity of whale wallets, particularly those holding 10 to 10,000 BTC, which account for about two-thirds of the supply. These wallets can indicate the direction of Bitcoin’s price. However, the recent consolidation of wallets related to the Mt. Gox trustee has skewed this data. Now, looking at wallets holding 10 or more BTC, there’s a clearer picture: as these wallets accumulate, the price tends to rise, and as they distribute, the price tends to become more volatile.
Since the end of 2023, the accumulation of BTC by these large wallets has been steady, leading to price increases. However, since late May, there has been a slight decrease in accumulation, causing some concern. Zooming out to the past four years, a similar decline was observed starting in February 2022, which preceded a challenging year for crypto due to rising interest rates and other factors. Despite these fluctuations, since the beginning of 2023, accumulation has resumed, leading to a fourfold increase in Bitcoin’s price, which is significant.