Right now large Bitcoin holders, or those massive wallets often called whales and sharks, are seeing their grip loosen in a big way.
According to the latest data from Santiment, these large Bitcoin holders sitting on anywhere from 10 to 10,000 BTC now control just about 68.04% of all Bitcoin out there.
That’s the smallest slice they’ve held since late May, back when BTC first punched back above $100,000 after a long dry spell.
Your completely free resource hub designed to boost your knowledge of cryptocurrencies
Santiment took to X to point out that large Bitcoin holders have dumped a hefty 81,068 BTC in only the last eight days. The price tanked hard during that stretch, sliding from roughly $90,000 down to around $65,000.
That’s a brutal 27% drop in under two weeks. At the moment, Bitcoin is hovering near $64,792 (after dipping as low as just over $60,000 in the last 24 hours), per CoinMarketCap.
And it’s not just large Bitcoin holders playing defense
CryptoQuant’s CEO Ki Young Ju noted on X that pretty much every Bitcoin analyst out there is bearish right now. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index cratered to a scary 9 out of 100 on Friday, the worst reading since the dark days of mid-2022 after Terra blew up.
On the flip side, everyday retail folks are jumping in headfirst.
Santiment highlights how “shrimp wallets” (those tiny ones under 0.1 BTC) have climbed to a 20-month high. Since June 2024, when Bitcoin was trading around $66,000 before dipping to $53,000 in August, these small holders have kept stacking. Now they own about 0.249% of the total supply, roughly 52,290 BTC.
Santiment, however, believes large Bitcoin holders selling while retail keeps buying is classic bear cycle fuel.
Bitcoin’s down about 29.62% over the past year, and the pressure from those large Bitcoin holders exiting positions isn’t helping. Whether this is just a healthy shakeout or the start of something deeper, I guess we will wait around and find out.
