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Small investors are buying Bitcoin while whales are reducing their holdings
For most of this month, Bitcoin has been trading around $60,000. That part is unremarkable. What is interesting is the emerging split in coin ownership that could influence what happens next.
Data from Santiment shows that the number of wallets holding less than 0.1 $BTC (a level typically associated with retail investors) has increased by 2.5% since the largest cryptocurrency reached its record high in October. This growth has pushed the share of supply held by so-called “shrimps” to its highest level since mid-2024.
In practice, however, larger holders — known as whales and sharks — tend to set the tone for price direction. These investors, whose wallets contain between 10 and 10,000 $BTC, have moved in the opposite direction, reducing their holdings by approximately 0.8%.
This type of divergence often leads to choppy, frustrating price action rather than clear trends.
Retail provides a floor and can generate short-term momentum. Sustainable upside requires larger players willing to absorb available supply.
The divergence is particularly notable because just a few weeks ago, the picture looked different.
As reported earlier this month, after Bitcoin fell to $60,000 on February 5 (a drawdown of more than 50% from its October peak), the Accumulation Trend Score from Glassnode rose to 0.68 — its strongest reading since late November.
Glassnode’s metric measures the relative strength of accumulation across wallet sizes, considering both the size of the entity and the amount of $BTC accumulated over the past 15 days. A score closer to 1 signals accumulation, while a score closer to 0 indicates distribution.
During that spike, the 10–100 $BTC cohort was the most aggressive buyer on the dip, and the data suggested the market was shifting from capitulation toward something more synchronized.
Santiment’s broader lens complicates that interpretation. Its 10–10,000 $BTC range covers a much wider group of large holders than Glassnode’s buying cohort, and across that full range, the net position since October remains negative.
One way to reconcile the two views is that mid-sized wallets may have stepped in during panic selling, while the largest holders continued distributing into each recovery, dragging down the aggregate figure.
This matters because Bitcoin does not need retail to show up. Retail is already here.
What it needs is for distribution from large wallets to stop — or better yet, reverse. Without that, every rally risks being sold by the very cohort that must provide structural demand for a sustained breakout.
The shrimps are doing their part. They are waiting for the whales to join.
