A total of $1.3 billion of USD Coin (USDC) in transfers from apparent whale addresses to crypto exchange Coinbase on Thursday could potentially be a “giant buy signal” for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), according to market observers. 

“USDC moving onto exchanges is a giant buy signal, as the saying goes on the internet ‘money printer go brr,’” crypto trader Blockchain Mane told Cointelegraph.

The five transfers totaling $1.3 billion — with the amounts ranging from $150 million to $350 million — were made to Coinbase on April 25 at 08:15 UTC, according to Etherscan data.

Traders often view large stablecoin deposits on exchanges as a bullish sign, indicating possible large buy orders in the near future, while significant crypto deposits on exchanges can signal a potential sell-off, making traders wary of a downturn.

“If this is indeed a whale buying and at current prices then yes, it can have a big impact on the price of the asset they are buying, which at that level is almost certainly only Bitcoin and Ethereum,” crypto commentator Lark Davis aka “The Crypto Lark” told Cointelegraph.

However, crypto analysts agreed that whale movements are never a guaranteed indicator for the crypto market.

“A lot of attention gets paid to whale movements, but we never really know what they are doing,” Davis said.

“$1.3B is a good amount of capital but it depends on where this is getting deployed,” crypto trader and YouTuber Brian Jung added.

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Davis also pointed out that whales might place limit orders instead of instantly buying the assets, which will instead create stronger support levels for the cryptocurrencies they invest in.

“A limit order will go in, creating a buy wall that will act as a layer of price support for the assets,” Davis explained.

However he warned it is “never definitive” how these large transfers will impact the market.

Meanwhile, Jung argued that the market could “shift positively” if a significant amount of funds were to go into a single crypto token as “we would see additional liquidity help move the price of other cryptos up.”

Although he is doubtful an investor would see the benefit of doing so, due to overexposure risks.

“If this amount were deployed into a single altcoin with a $100M market cap, it would absolutely spike the price, but I can’t imagine any whale in their right mind doing this as it would make it nearly impossible for them to be profitable by doing so.”

“If it was used to buy Bitcoin, it wouldn’t have a similar effect,” Jung added.

The large movement of funds happened despite the crypto market sentiment slightly declining, according to the Fear and Greed Index.

The Greed score dropped from 64.04 to a neutral level of 59.78 over the past 24 hours, suggesting a shift in traders’ focus away from accumulation.

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.