According to crypto analytics platform Santiment, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC increased their collective share of total supply to 68% last week, up from 68% seven days prior.
While that shift may look small on paper, Santiment flagged it as a meaningful directional change after weeks of selling pressure. Bitcoin was trading around $71,470 at the time of the report, up about 6% over the prior week.
Santiment says the renewed accumulation by large holders is encouraging, but the picture isn’t complete yet. What analysts are watching now is whether everyday investors — those with smaller wallets — start trimming their holdings.
Data shows that historically, Bitcoin has tended to hit its floor not when big money walks away, but when ordinary buyers give up and sell.
“Markets rarely reward the majority consensus immediately,” Santiment said in its weekly report. If retail participation stays elevated or keeps climbing, analysts say that could signal more downside ahead rather than a recovery.
That caution is reinforced by on-chain analyst Willy Woo, who recently said Bitcoin remains “solidly in the middle of its bear market” when viewed through a long-range liquidity lens — a read that cuts against any near-term optimism.
Whether whale accumulation marks the start of a sustained recovery or just a brief pause in a longer slide will likely depend on how retail investors behave in the days ahead.
Santiment says it wants to see small wallet holdings decline while large wallet positions continue rising — the classic pattern of coins moving from uncertain hands into more committed ones. For now, that shift has started. Whether it holds is another question.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
