Retail investors are exiting Bitcoin at their fastest pace since December as whales keep accumulating near current prices.
Bitcoin whales and sharks are continuing to increase their holdings as the cryptocurrency trades in the $63,000 to $65,000 range, according to the latest data from Santiment.
The accumulation trend has strengthened since its previous report earlier this week, which highlighted a surge in network activity driven by the impact of the Coldcard hardware wallet security incident.
Retail Dumps Holdings
At the time, Santiment reported that active Bitcoin addresses had climbed to a three-month high of 712,000 over the previous seven days, while transactions worth more than $100,000 reached a five-month high of 61,800. The firm said affected users rushed to move their funds and reorganize their wallets after the security breach, which ended up triggering a sharp increase in on-chain activity.
In its latest update, Santiment flagged a notable shift. While large holders have continued adding BTC to their wallets, micro holders are reducing their exposure at the fastest pace since December 2024. The Coldcard hack remains a major factor, as both the accumulation by whales and the selling by smaller investors began around the same period.
The uncertainty surrounding the CLARITY Act also contributed to the trend. Bitcoin’s ongoing period of sideways price action has discouraged retail participants, adding to the selling pressure from smaller wallets. It is this divergence between large and small holders that is becoming more pronounced, Santiment explained.
With key stakeholders steadily accumulating while retail investors continue to exit, the analytics platform said the odds of BTC climbing above $70,000 are increasing. This, in turn, makes that outcome more likely than a drop below the $60,000 level.
The Coldcard fallout was also evident in data from CoinMetrics, which recorded a temporary increase in BTC held on exchanges.
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ETFs Stay in Positive Territory
On the institutional side, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded four straight days of inflows. On 6th August, these funds attracted nearly $129 million. BlackRock’s IBIT led the numbers with $123 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s ETF with $11.2 million. Outflows came from VanEck’s HODL, which shed $32.7 million, and Valkyrie’s BRRR, which lost $9.07 million on the day. The remaining funds either posted smaller additions or ended the session unchanged.
The latest stretch of gains has pushed the monthly figures to almost $755 million.
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