• The spike in the number of whales strengthens the case for a rally to record highs.

• Retail investor accumulation has recently slowed, according to CryptoQuant.

The number of large bitcoin holders is growing again, boosting the case for a price rally to new record highs.

Data tracked by Glassnode and André Dragosch, director and head of research for Europe at Bitwise, shows the number of so-called whales or network entities owning at least 1,000 BTC jumped to 1,678 early this week, reaching the highest since January 2021.

The growing accumulation by large holders alongside solid uptake for alternative vehicles, especially the U.S.-listed spot ETFs, suggests increasing confidence in bitcoin's price prospects.

Entities are defined as clusters of crypto wallet addresses held by a single network participant holding at least 1,000 BTC. Activity of whale entities is closely watched, given their capacity to influence liquidity and prices.

Meanwhile, retail investor accumulation has slowed, with the cryptocurrency's price nearing $70,000, according to analytics firm CryptoQuant.

"Retail holdings have risen by just 1K Bitcoin in the last thirty days, a historically slow pace," analysts at CryptoQuant told CoinDesk.

"Since the start of 2024, the holdings of other larger investors (those holding between 1 and 10K Bitcoin) have grown faster than the holdings of retail investors on a yearly basis. As of today, retail holdings have grown by 30K Bitcoin, compared to 173K Bitcoin of other larger investors," they added.

Bitcoin traded just above $67,000 at press time, just 10% short of setting a new lifetime above $73,800. Prices briefly topped $69,000 Monday before losing momentum, supposedly due to a continued rise in the dollar index and Treasury yields.

Some analysts are confident that rising yields will not weigh over risk assets for long and that the path of least resistance for BTC is on the higher side. Options trading on dominant exchange Deribit point to $80,000 and $100,000 as levels to watch out for the rest of the year.