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Bitcoin’s latest price dip has triggered an unexpected surge in whale activity, with on-chain analysts now predicting that this could become the most active week for large Bitcoin transactions in 2025. As BTC briefly slipped under the $90,000 level for the first time in seven months, whales have begun moving at a pace not seen all year — and many analysts believe the shift signals accumulation rather than panic.
Whale Transactions Spike as Prices Fall
According to blockchain intelligence firm Santiment, whale activity has accelerated sharply during Bitcoin’s correction. In a post shared on X, the firm reported more than 102,000 BTC transactions exceeding $100,000 and an additional 29,000 transactions worth over $1 million already recorded this week.
Santiment noted that this level of activity, combined with the pace of transactions, could make this week the most active whale week of 2025. More importantly, the firm highlighted a clear transition in whale behavior:
“Whale moves are gradually turning from dumping to accumulating again,” Santiment wrote.
The surge coincides with Bitcoin dropping to a multi-month low, briefly falling below $90,000 before recovering to the $92,000 range. Historically, heightened whale activity during market weakness has been an early signal of strategic buying.
Analysts Suggest Whales Are Buying the Dip
Some analysts initially suspected that the market downturn was fueled by whales unloading their holdings. But fresh data suggests the opposite. Glassnode, another leading analytics platform, reported a notable increase in wallets holding more than 1,000 BTC since late October, with an even sharper rise starting last Friday.
This trend indicates that whales have been accumulating during the correction instead of triggering it.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Pav Hundal, lead analyst at Swyftx, said that rapid shifts in sentiment—often influenced by news and geopolitical trends—have played a major role in whale activity throughout the year. According to Hundal, the recent rebound in tech stocks after Nvidia’s strong results may have contributed to renewed buying interest across both institutional and retail investors.
“BTC has rallied in the wake of Nvidia’s bumper results and that suggests to me that both whales and retail are stepping in and buying,” Hundal explained. He added that the buy-to-sell ratio on the platform had climbed to 10:1, far above the usual 3:1 average. “Investors are buying the dip.”
Analysts Describe Market Behavior as a “Mechanical Shakeout”
Hundal believes the recent downturn was less about fear and more about an automatic flush of weak positions.
“The market is irrational at the moment,” he said. “We’ve seen an unprecedented shake-out of short-term holders over the last few weeks. When you look at the data, this looks like a much-needed washout and reset.”
This perspective is shared by other major market observers. Bradley Duke, managing director at Bitwise Asset Management, said that whales appear to be maintaining calm and using the sell-off to increase their exposure.
“As fear and panic gripped many investors, the number of BTC whales has spiked,” Duke noted on X. “Large holders are keeping a level head and buying at discount prices from panic sellers.”
Patterns Suggest a Large Forced Seller Entered the Market
Despite the growing confidence among analysts, some experts believe the sell-off may have been driven by a temporary market distortion. Tushar Jain, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, suggested that there may have been a large forced seller responsible for the systematic downward pressure.
“We are seeing systematic selling during specific hours,” Jain wrote. “Probably a consequence of 10/10 liquidations. Hard to imagine this scale of forced selling continues for much longer.”
Forced liquidations, especially those tied to leveraged holdings or institutional deleveraging events, can create short-term artificial volatility that reverses once the selling pressure stops.
Market Leaders Predict Bitcoin Could Bottom Out This Week
Some high-profile analysts, including BitMine chairman Tom Lee and Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, predicted earlier this week that Bitcoin could reach its local bottom before the weekend. Their forecasts align with the latest whale accumulation trends, suggesting that large investors may be positioning for a potential rebound.
Though volatility remains elevated, the rapid shift from whale outflows to inflows is often an early precursor to stronger price recovery phases. If accumulation continues and forced selling tapers off, BTC may stabilize sooner than many expected.
