On-chain data reveals: the whale's remaining balance is not as abundant as imagined

TopEscapeArtist · 2026-01-04T18:34:38+00:00

According to CryptoQuant's analysis, the market's optimistic outlook on giant whales buying Bitcoin may be overly exaggerated. The analysis indicates that the apparent increase in whale holdings results from exchange address restructuring rather than actual market purchases. Excluding exchange addresses, the actual Bitcoin balance of whales has decreased, and medium-sized holders are also reducing their holdings, indicating that market buying pressure is not as strong as expected. Retail participation in ETFs has become the main source of funds.

TopEscapeArtist

2026-01-04 18:34:38

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According to on-chain data analysis from CryptoQuant, the market’s claim of “whales massively accumulating Bitcoin” may be overly optimistic. Analyst Julio Moreno pointed out that this illusion of growing whale holdings actually stems from the reconfiguration of exchange addresses, rather than genuine market buying pressure.

The Truth Behind the Surface Prosperity

After excluding exchange addresses from the statistics, the Bitcoin holdings of whales are continuously declining. This phenomenon indicates that the seemingly active Bitcoin inflows in the market are largely a visual illusion caused by exchanges consolidating assets into a few addresses. According to the latest data, the concentration of the top 10 Bitcoin addresses is only 5.97%, and the top 20 addresses account for 8.53%, suggesting that the overall market holdings are relatively dispersed.

Medium-sized Holders Are Also Shrinking

It is also worth noting that addresses holding between 100 and 1000 Bitcoins are showing a downward trend. These addresses mainly hold spot ETFs, and their decreasing holdings further confirm that whales are not actively buying as the market expected. Currently, retail investors’ participation through ETFs has increased, becoming the main source of funds.

In the short term, with the concentration of exchange addresses remaining high, the true buying signals on-chain are not as strong as imagined.

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