Bitcoin, Tether on-chain data indicates increased institutional activity: CoinFund analyst

Since China‘s Paramount Leader, Xi Jinping embraced blockchain technology last month, discussions regarding its effect on the cryptocurrency community have been taking place left, right and center. Recently, CoinFund analyst, Devin Walsh took to Twitter to discuss his analysis of Bitcoin and Tether on-chain data to see if new users had been on-boarding into the crypto space since Xi’s declaration.

On-chain intelligence source, TokenAnalyst had previously reported that there had been 169,000 transactions, worth 475,000 BTC during Chinese waking hours, and 175,000 transactions, worth 962,000 BTC outside of waking hours, following Xi’s announcement. According to Walsh, however, the on-chain data does not indicate an increase in entry of new users in the space, and the increase in transaction sizes could be a sign of institutional action. He also noted that the number of addresses sending and receiving Bitcoin and USDT, along with the number of distinct transactions for these assets, have remained relatively stagnant since.

Walsh also mentioned that on-chain transaction volume for only USDT had increased since the announcement, citing data collected by TokenAnalyst

“Even after adjusting volume data for a 300M Omni–> ERC-20 USDT swap on Oct 29, we still see a large increase in average tx size for USDT.”

Consequently, the CoinFund analyst said that on-chain data pointed toward the fact that larger volume transactions had been occurring, while the number of distinct transactions, and the number of senders & recipients, remained stagnant. According to Walsh, this indicates that the transactions are more likely driven by larger institutional players rather than retail users.