Journalist
Posted:
- BNT whale transfers have risen to an annual high in the past 24 hours.
- Liquidations by whale investors caused BNT prices to fall.
Holders of the decentralized exchange token Bancor [BNT] experienced a wave of emotions last weekend. After an 18-month high thanks to the steady accumulation of whales, BNT lost almost half its market value as some influential cohorts dumped their assets.
The rise and fall of BNT
Since November 8, things started to change for the small cap crypto, which remained relatively quiet in 2023. According to CoinMarketCap.
The pump was significantly helped by the accumulation activity of influential user cohorts. According to an analysis company in the chain SantimentWallets holding more than 10,000 coins have been aggressively stockpiling over the past two weeks.
Source: Santiment
Activity peaked in the past 24 hours as Bancor transfers worth more than a million jumped to an annual high, as shown below. During the same period, the supply of wallets holding more than 10,000 coins rose to the highest level since January 2022.
Although things went well, the rally was eventually halted by profit-hungry traders. AMBCrypto closely examined Santiment’s data and found a sharp drop in the cohort’s holdings of 1 million to 10 million BNT coins.
In fact, outflows of over 16 million were seen after the price broke past $1.8.
Source: Santiment
The liquidations exerted major downward pressure and BNT collapsed. The market capitalization worth over $124 million was wiped out and BNT halved within hours.
Interestingly enough, Bancor was the subject of much discussion on crypto-focused social channels. Social volume has increased dramatically over the past 24 hours, as shown below.
Source: Santiment
Concerns about market manipulation
Dramatic swings in the value of small-cap assets have often fueled fears of market manipulation. The pump-and-dump system remained the most infamous example of this.
As is known, this involves artificially inflating the value of an asset with less liquidity, through coordinated purchases and propaganda. Once unsuspecting retail investors are lured in and the price is sufficiently ‘inflated’, the holders start dumping their assets at a profit.
Read Bancors [BNT] Price prediction 2023-24
Ultimately, new investors are left with low-value assets and end up becoming the exit liquidity whales.
While there was nothing concrete to indicate foul play in the above case, new investors should be cautious when entering the market.