Large Bitcoin holders have reduced their collective stake to the lowest level in nine months, according to on-chain data. Wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin now control about 68% of the supply after selling over 81,000 BTC in eight days as prices fell sharply. Meanwhile, smaller “shrimp” wallets are accumulating, a dynamic historically associated with bearish market cycles.
Large Bitcoin holders now control the smallest share of the cryptocurrency’s supply since late May, according to data from crypto sentiment platform Santiment. These “whale and shark wallets,” holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC), collectively account for about 68.04% of the entire supply.
Santiment stated this includes a dump of 81,068 BTC in just the past eight days alone. During that period, Bitcoin’s price fell from around $90,000 to $65,000, a roughly 27% decline according to CoinMarketCap.
Crypto market participants often track large Bitcoin holders to spot signs of accumulation or offloading. It isn’t just large Bitcoin holders showing caution, as CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju posted that “every Bitcoin analyst is now bearish.” The overall market sentiment is also low, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropping to a score of 9 out of 100.
While large holders have been selling, retail investors have been aggressively accumulating. Santiment said, “This combination of key stakeholders selling and retail buying is what historically creates bear cycles.” Wallets holding less than 0.1 Bitcoin, termed “shrimp wallets,” have risen to a 20-month high.
This cohort now accounts for 0.249% of Bitcoin’s total supply, equivalent to roughly 52,290 Bitcoin. Bitcoin is currently trading at $64,792, up from a 24-hour low of just over $60,000.
