As the global economy continues to reel under escalating tariff wars, leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has lost almost 4% of its value over the past week – dropping from around $84,500 on April 4 to $81,196 at the time of writing.
Bitcoin Whales See Tariff War As ‘Manufactured Crisis’
Despite the decline in BTC’s value following US President Donald Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on all countries, CryptoQuant analyst Mignolet believes that Bitcoin whales – wallet addresses holding significant amounts of BTC – are not panicking just yet.
In a Quicktake post published today, Mignolet shared the following chart which shows BTC whales’ holdings, excluding entities such as BTC mining pools and trading platforms. The analyst noted that, historically, BTC whales’ on-chain accumulation and distribution behavior has shown a strong correlation with price movements.
Mignolet pointed out that if BTC whales had exited during the 2024 cycle peak, the following chart would have reflected prolonged profit-taking at local highs, as seen in the red pattern labeled 1. Similarly, consistent distribution would have been visible during the ensuing price rebounds, highlighted in the red zone labelled 2.
The analyst drew comparisons with the crypto market crash at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They remarked that BTC whales exited in large numbers ahead of the crash, which was followed by a steep price decline. In contrast, the current price action mirrors accumulation pattern seen in August-September last year, highlighted below in red.
However, BTC whales have not dumped their holdings during the current tariff-induced turbulence. Mignolet described the ongoing price action as a “correction within an ongoing bull cycle,” not a structural crisis severe enough to trigger mass exits from whales. They added:
I continue to emphasize the difference between a sudden, unexpected crisis and one that is known and potentially engineered. That distinction shapes the market’s reaction and the behavior of long-term holders like whales.
The analyst concluded that the current market situation resembles a manufactured crisis rather than a genuine one – especially when comparing whale behavior now to that during the 2020 crash.
Quantitative Easing To Help Risk-On Assets
To wrap up, Mignolet suggested that once the current “manufactured crisis” subsides, both the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and China may be compelled to resume quantitative easing (QE) and inject fresh liquidity into the global economy – potentially benefitting risk-on assets like BTC.
A recent Binance Research report also noted BTC’s remarkable resilience despite fresh tariff-related uncertainty across global markets. At press time, BTC is trading at $81,196, up 1.6% over the past 24 hours.
