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By James Van Straten, AI Boost
May 29, 2025, 8:05 a.m.
- Whales transition from accumulation to distribution: Wallets holding over 10,000 BTC have shifted from buying to selling, while smaller holders continue to accumulate.
- Exchange deposits also signal selling pressure: After weeks of withdrawals, whales have begun moving BTC onto exchanges, a potential precursor to market exits or profit-taking.
Bitcoin
is currently consolidating between $107,000 and $109,000, remaining just a few percentage points shy of its all-time high. While this tight range may appear stable on the surface, on-chain data suggests a shift in sentiment among some of the market’s most influential participants, the large holders known as whales.
Glassnode’s Accumulation Trend Score, a measure of accumulation behavior across various wallet-size cohorts, offers deeper insight into this evolving market dynamic.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The metric evaluates the strength of purchasing by combining the size of wallet entities with the volume of bitcoin acquired over the past 15 days. For the largest holders, the value has dropped to 0.4. A reading closer to 1 indicates strong buying, whereas a level near 0 points to sales. Crucially, wallets associated with exchanges and miners are excluded from this analysis to provide a clearer picture of investor behavior.
What stands out is that entities holding 10,000 BTC or more typically classified as whales were the first to begin accumulating at the market’s April lows at around $75,000. Now, they are starting to reduce their holdings while the other wallet cohorts remain in accumulation mode. This pivot suggests a strategic shift, potentially driven by a desire to lock in profits near historic highs or a more cautious outlook on short-term price direction.
Supporting evidence for this shift in behavior comes from exchange-flow data that shows whale wallets had been steadily withdrawing bitcoin over the past month, a bullish signal that implies they were not looking to sell their holdings in the short term.
This trend now appears to be reversing. In two of the past three days, whales have deposited BTC back onto exchanges, a pattern commonly associated with imminent selling activity.
This nuanced behavior raises the critical question: Are whales anticipating a local top?
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
James Van Straten is a Senior Analyst at CoinDesk, specializing in Bitcoin and its interplay with the macroeconomic environment. Previously, James worked as a Research Analyst at Saidler & Co., a Swiss hedge fund, where he developed expertise in on-chain analytics. His work focuses on monitoring flows to analyze Bitcoin’s role within the broader financial system.
In addition to his professional endeavors, James serves as an advisor to Coinsilium, a UK publicly traded company, where he provides guidance on their Bitcoin treasury strategy. He also holds investments in Bitcoin and Strategy (MSTR).
“AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk’s AI Policy.
