Whales Are Back

According to Santiment, large wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have collectively accumulated 32,693 BTC since January 10. This represents a 0.24% increase in their holdings and marks the highest accumulation level in two months.

Meanwhile, micro investors holding less than 0.01 BTC have sold a total of 149 BTC over the same period, reducing their balances by 0.30%. This divergence—whales buying steadily while small investors exit—is a key driver behind Bitcoin’s recent rally.

Retail Hesitant, Whales Steady

Santiment notes that retail investors remain skeptical of the mini-rally, while whales’ consistent accumulation creates favorable conditions for a bull market scenario.

Market sentiment paints an interesting picture: although prices are rising, negative social media comments have reached a 10-day high. Retail caution persists, a familiar pattern for experienced traders.

BTC Derivatives Support the Rally

Derivatives data also reinforce this steady rise. Analyst Axel Adler Jr. highlights that the Bitcoin Position Index climbed to 3.5 this week, surpassing a critical level not seen since October. Open positions and funding rates indicate that the surge is steady rather than sudden.

Crucially:

• Open positions and funding rates remain moderate.

• This rally is more organic than past “pump-and-dump” episodes.

• The market interprets it as a controlled return of risk appetite.

In short, while Bitcoin consolidates near the $98K mark, the real story unfolds on-chain. All eyes are now on when this whale-driven accumulation phase will push BTC toward the $100,000 psychological level.

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The post Santiment Data Shows Striking Bitcoin Whale Accumulation appeared first on Coin Engineer.

BTC is only 6% away from its all-time high of $111,700. Despite this surge, the network shows remarkable calmness, with a noticeable drop in transaction counts. 

Bitcoin’s daily transactions, which reached 734,000 in 2023 and 2024, have decreased to between 320,000 and 500,000 daily since early 2025. The main reason for this decline is the reduction in non-monetary transactions related to Taproot and OP_RETURN. Monetary transactions have remained stable, with value transfers steady, while data-carrying transactions have nearly ceased. 

Big Investors Gain More Influence 

Despite the drop in transaction counts, transaction volumes remain high. Daily average transaction volume is around $7.5 billion, with the average value per transaction reaching $36,200. This indicates fewer but larger transactions on the network. 

Supporting this trend, transactions over $100,000 now account for 89% of the network volume, while those between $0-$100,000 have fallen to 11%. These figures clearly show large investors dominating on-chain activities. 

Explosion of Off-Chain Market Volumes 

Spot and derivatives markets play a critical role in BTC’s current dynamics. Centralized exchanges see an average daily spot volume of $10 billion. Futures trading volume reached $57 billion daily last year and hit a record $122 billion at peak. 

Options markets have also grown, with daily average volumes reaching $2.4 billion and some days hitting $5 billion. All these figures reveal off-chain market activity is 7 to 16 times larger than on-chain volume. 

Leverage Increases, Risk Rises 

Leverage levels in derivatives markets are rising. Total open interest stands at around $96.2 billion. Especially since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, leverage has increased further, bringing higher risk of sudden price swings. Open interest in futures surged from $7.7 billion to $52.8 billion, while options rose from $3.2 billion to $43.4 billion, pushing total derivatives open interest to $114 billion. This shows clear growth and rising investor interest in derivatives. 

Meanwhile, miners’ income from transaction fees has dropped significantly, averaging only $558,000 daily in the last month. This decline indicates a notable decrease in block space demand, mirroring the general drop in transaction counts. 

One notable development is the preference for stablecoin-collateralized positions over crypto-collateralized ones, signaling more cautious and sustainable risk management by investors. 

The post Bitcoin and Crypto Report 2025: Critical Analysis from Glassnode! appeared first on Coin Engineer.