Bitcoin Whales Snap Up 19,696 BTC in 8 Days as Price Slides to $63K

Bitcoin dropped 3% on Monday, briefly touching $63,000, and the dip didn’t scare off the big money. If anything, it seemed to attract it.

Data from Santiment shows wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC collectively added 19,696 units over the past eight days. Retail wallets — those holding less than 0.01 BTC — went the other direction, pulling back on buying. So while smaller players hesitated, larger ones kept loading up. That kind of divergence matters. It basically means supply is moving from weaker hands into stronger ones, which is exactly what bulls want to see during a pullback. And it’s happening alongside Bitcoin ETFs pulling in over $222 million in inflows during July alone, which analysts are calling a “constructive” backdrop.

Not a breakout. Not yet.

Consolidation Phase Still Running

Swissblock puts Bitcoin squarely in what it calls a “Bullish Transition” — a consolidation phase that, historically, runs about 40 days before any meaningful recovery kicks in. The current cycle is sitting at 30 days. That leaves roughly a 10-day window, give or take, before the pattern either resolves or breaks down. Swissblock says the key is sustaining a bottom signal. Without that, the setup doesn’t hold.

It’s worth keeping in mind just how far Bitcoin has fallen from its highs. The asset is trading about 50% below its October 2025 peak of $126,200. That’s a brutal haircut by any measure. But the on-chain picture isn’t screaming panic. BTC held on exchanges has dropped by around 78,000 units over the past six months, landing at roughly 2.705 million. Less Bitcoin sitting on exchanges generally means less immediate sell pressure — holders are keeping coins off the table rather than positioning to dump them.

CryptoQuant flagged this as unusual. During typical capitulation phases, investors tend to move Bitcoin onto exchanges to sell. That’s not what’s happening here. Instead, coins are flowing toward self-custody, which reads more like a long-term hold decision than a rush for the exit.

One risk worth watching: if the 7-day moving average of netflow turns and holds positive, that could signal renewed selling pressure and potentially drag Bitcoin down to retest $58,000. That level isn’t guaranteed, but it’s on the table if sentiment shifts.

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Institutional Wallets Pull $441 Million Off Binance

The biggest single move of the day came from two large institutional wallets that pulled 6,765 BTC — worth roughly $441.34 million — off Binance on Monday. Both withdrawals happened within the same hour. That kind of timing isn’t accidental.

BSCN reported the transactions. The coordination suggests a deliberate migration of spot liquidity into private cold storage, not a sale. When institutions move that much Bitcoin off an exchange in a tight window, it’s pretty much always a strategic call — either they’re repositioning ahead of something or they’re simply getting assets out of exchange custody and into more secure arrangements. No details on which wallets or who controls them. Unclear if they’re related entities or separate players who happened to act simultaneously.

Either way, 6,765 BTC leaving Binance in one hour is a meaningful reduction in available exchange liquidity. If more institutional players make similar moves — and the six-month trend in exchange outflows suggests some probably will — the pool of Bitcoin available for immediate trading keeps shrinking. Tighter supply on exchanges tends to amplify price moves in both directions when demand finally picks up.

What the Supply Picture Actually Means

Put it all together and the market is in a weird, tense spot. Large holders are accumulating. Institutions are moving coins to cold storage. Exchange supply is falling. ETF inflows are positive. And yet Bitcoin is still sitting 50% off its highs, grinding through a consolidation phase that isn’t done yet.

The 19,696 BTC picked up by mid-to-large wallets over eight days is a real number. It’s not a rounding error. And the 78,000-unit drop in exchange-held Bitcoin over six months tells a consistent story: people with serious holdings are not in a hurry to sell. That’s a different posture than what you’d normally see when a market is genuinely breaking down.

See also: Shiba Inu Whales Dump After 52 Single-Day Transactions Spark 35% Surge

But the consolidation phase is testing patience. Thirty days in, ten days left on the historical average — that’s the window Swissblock is watching. Sustaining a bottom signal through that stretch is the condition the firm says needs to hold for a recovery phase to take shape.

The $58,000 retest risk stays real if netflow trends reverse. And with Bitcoin still trading at half its peak, even the bulls probably admit the road back isn’t short.

The two institutional wallets that moved 6,765 BTC off Binance on Monday did so at an average price somewhere around $63,000 per coin.