Bitcoin is ramping up for massive move to $19k as whales accumulate BTC in historic buying spree

• Market analysts are optimistic that BTC could regain $19k price levels. 
• Whale accumulation and on-chain activity point to the possibility of the BTC market entering a full-on reversal to new highs.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been holding strong in the $17,000 range, currently changing hands at around $17,200, up 2.60% in the last 24 hours. The price which is near its one-month high price of around $17,980, has sparked speculation that BTC could be on the road to regaining $19,000 price levels.

One analyst that has expressed the view is pseudonymous crypto analyst ‘CredibleCrypto.’ The crypto market pundit noted that traders on Binance were showing up to support BTC price in the mid $16k range. He added that the price could drop one more time to around $16.4 to $16.5k and proceed from there to around $18-$19k.

In a follow-up tweet in response to analyst OtsukimiCrypto, CredibleCrypto stated that while many observers expect the current rally to be a “dead cat bounce,” he expects that BTC will go on to enter a “full-on reversal to new highs” and will soon surpass $30k.

Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, seemed to share a similar stance, stating in a tweet that he is “expecting continuation for Bitcoin as long as we stay above $17K.” He likened the overnight move to the BTC breakout from the end of November.

Along with this, the surge in the price of BTC has also seen short traders in the derivatives market suffer massive liquidity. Per data from Coinglass, BTC futures market liquidations reached $36.77 million, with 88.33% of the figure contributed by short traders. Market commentator, OnChainCollege, pointed out that over $5 million of the BTC short liquidations happened during a 15 price upsurge.

Related: Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) Keep Falling as Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) Becomes a Blue Chip Option in Presale

What has been driving the BTC price surge?

Meanwhile, crypto market analytics and social metrics monitoring platform, Santiment, has gone on to point out what has been driving the marginally sustained price surge. Santiment shared that due to accumulation, both BTC and Ether (ETH) are seeing their respective supplies on exchanges go lower.

The two cryptocurrencies have now reached 4-year lows, implying lower sell-off risks. The percentage of all BTC held by exchanges has fallen to 6.32% while ETH fell to 12.06% of the circulating supply held by the trading venues. This is in contrast to the exchange supply of the leading dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT) which has spiked implying greater real-time buying power.

🧐 #Bitcoin and #Ethereum continue seeing their available respective supplies go lower & lower. They have now both breached 4-year lows, implying a lower sell-off risk. #Tether, meanwhile, has high exchange supply, implying greater real-time buying power. https://t.co/vbKVRG7WF0 pic.twitter.com/1xAICvUqva

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 8, 2022

The BTC market first started showing strength following encouraging remarks made by Jerome Powell, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, earlier this month. Powell noted that the Fed could possibly announce a lower-than-usual interest rate hike during its FOMC meeting later this month.