Mass Bitcoin sell-off? Why this could actually be bullish

The Bitcoin bull rally ground to a halt after Donald Trump took over the White House despite his promises of pro-crypto regulations. Uncertainty still persists in the digital assets market as BTC price failed to regain the $100K mark, showing major fluctuation in investors’ sentiment.

Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China have sparked a global sell-off that also led Bitcoin price to drop below $92K last week. Investors fear tariffs could trigger inflation and slow economic growth, adding to wider market uncertainty.

However, data suggests that the whales are accumulating when the small traders are panicking.

Bitcoin holders panic

According to the data shared by Santiment, digital assets like Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple’s XRP continue to register more and more wallets in their network lately, while this is not the case for Bitcoin. The data reported that the crypto’s top cap has 277.24K fewer non-empty wallets than it had 3 weeks ago. Bitcoin’s network now has 54.44 million total non-empty wallets which is the lowest number seen since December 10, 2024.

Santiment also suggested that the recent market decline seems to be caused by small traders cashing out. This is primarily due to fear of further crypto-wide sell-offs. The Fear and Greed index has been flashing “Fear” among traders over the last week. 

📊 Even with cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and XRP continuing to see their networks grow with more and more wallets, the same is not true for Bitcoin. Crypto's top cap has 277.24K LESS non-empty wallets than it did 3 weeks ago.

The decline appears to be primarily due to small… pic.twitter.com/V2rJWDnaY9

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 12, 2025

Such declines in retail belief over the past turned out to be positive for mid to long-term market performances. When small traders go on a selling spree, crypto whales and sharks typically accumulate and absorb the selling pressure. Whale wallets utilize their capital to pump the market when FUD hits the investors the most.

BTC struggles while whales shift to Ether

Bitcoin price has dropped by 3% in the last 7 days while it is down by 6% over the past 60 days. This uncertainty has pushed the top altcoin even lower. BTC is trading at an average price of $96,180 as of press time.

Data provided by SpotOnChain shows, that a whale deposited 1,100 Bitcoins to the Binance crypto exchange on Thursday. This move has added more pressure on BTC and the market. The whale wallet had accumulated 5,700 Bitcoins from Binance at an average price of $81,418 between March and December 2024. It now holds 4,598 BTC (worth $445 million) with an estimated profit of $87 million.

A giant whale moved 1,100 $BTC ($106.4M) to #Binance ~20 minutes ago.

Between March and December 2024, this whale accumulated 5,700 $BTC from Binance at an average price of $81,418.

Now, at the current price of ~$96.8K, the whale holds 4,598 $BTC ($444.6M) with an est. total… pic.twitter.com/pe6PljQdk3

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) February 13, 2025

The biggest altcoin, Ether, has seen one of the biggest drops among top cryptos. ETH price dropped by more than 30% in the last 60 days and is still down by 5% over the past 7 days. Meanwhile, a whale wallet has been noticed accumulating ETH. It has reportedly withdrawn around 104,500 Ether (worth $279 million) from Binance over the past 2 days.

This huge ETH accumulation came at an average price of $2,669. Most of the ETH bought has been supplied or staked across platforms like Etherfi, Lido Finance, Spark, and more. Ether price is up by 2% in the last 24 hours and is trading at an average price of $2,674 as of press time.

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