Bitcoin (BTC( largest holders) reaccumulating after a period heavy distribution. According to data, whales balances increased after the largest sell-off since the beginning of 2023. Mid-sized investors continue to minimize their exposure.
Takeaways from the conference:
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Whale addresses increased their BTC by 46,000 this week. The net one-year change is now positive, the first time it has been since the Q4 of 2025.
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Dolphin addresses (including ETFs) and Treasury Entities cut their BTC holdings even further, to 589,900 BTC. The decrease in demand has now lasted more than a month.
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This cycle the dolphin flow has dominated prices, however whale accumulation historically occurs before key price rallies.
Bitcoin whales balances are now in positive territory after record-breaking drawdown
CryptoQuant was featured in the last week’s issue of CryptoQuant. report It was shown that BTC addresses had a net one-year change of total BTC holdings. “whales,” Holding 1,000-10,000 BTC declined by 2220,000 BTC.
It means that whale balances have decreased by this amount in comparison to the previous year. This was a result of the cycle-high net accumulation in December 2024, which reached 400,000 BTC. It marked the most negative change in one year since the early years in 2023.
The trend has changed this week. The trend changed this week. The rebound is modest but the timing of it after the most rapid distribution phase in the current cycle makes it notable.
It is now less optimistic for this year. “dolphin” cohort, defined as addresses holding 100–1,000 BTC, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasuries. The change over a year in the total amount of dolphins reached a peak on October 4, 2020, with 972,000 BTC. It then dropped to 634,000 BTC by last week.
Balances dropped to 589,000 BTC in this week’s report, which is a further decline of nearly 38% since the peak. It also confirms that demand has been slowing down.
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The accumulation cycles of whales and dolphins have been structurally out-of-phase. The highest one-year positive change in whale total holdings was reached in June 2024, at approximately 260,000 BTC. Dolphin balances were near 11,000 BTC.
The dolphin holdings, boosted largely by the ETFs since that time, have expanded rapidly to reach 970,000 BTC before October 2025.
Due to the size of dolphin flows, they have had a larger impact this cycle on prices.
The recent price rebound is a possible early structural signal, rather than just a temporary catalyst.
Related: Bitcoin prints classic bottom signals as BTC nears $101K reclaim
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Source: cointelegraph.com
