Bitcoin whales are ‘buying the dip,’ but should you follow?

• The past few days have seen an uptick in BTC accumulation by large investors.
• This has occurred despite the decline in the coin’s price and market volatility.

Bitcoin [BTC] large holders have actively accumulated the coin despite the recent correction in the coin’s price after trading at a new all-time high of $69,170 on 5th March, Santiment noted in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

According to the on-chain data provider, the count of these large holder addresses, referred to as whales and sharks accounts, has rallied in the last week. For example, the count of addresses holding between 100 and 1000 BTC has increased by 1% in the past nine days.

Likewise, the number of addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 BTC has spiked by 4% during the same period. 

However, despite increased whale and shark participation, the number of BTC wallets with a non-zero balance is declining. A non-zero wallet is an address that holds even a tiny amount of a specific cryptocurrency.

Short-term holders continue to jeopardize BTC’s chances

According to Santiment, the decline in BTC’s non-zero wallets is “mainly due to small traders capitulating.” This suggests that retail BTC traders are exiting their market for various reasons, such as profit-taking, loss-cutting, or simply a lack of confidence in the coin’s short-term prospects.

AMBCrypto previously reported that the recent spike in BTC’s price resulted in a rally in the count of short-term investors holding the leading coin. 

As highlighted in the report, this trend put BTC at risk of decline because a large amount of its supply is controlled by this investor cohort comprised of traders who are ready to sell their coins for gains at any slight change in market sentiment. 

The decline in BTC’s futures open interest in the past few days confirmed the exit of these investors. According to Coinglass’ data, BTC’s open interest has declined by 3% since 5th March. 

When an asset’s open interest falls in this manner, it suggests that traders are exiting their positions without opening new ones, and liquidity inflow into the market is witnessing a general decline.

Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price Prediction 2024-2025

However, according to Santiment, despite the decline in non-zero Bitcoin wallets and the volatility in the market, the presence of sharks and whales actively participating suggests a bullish outlook. 

This indicates that despite short-term fluctuations in BTC’s value and small traders “dumping” the coin for profit, there is still strong support from its larger holders.