BTC buyers are sending coins to so-called shark wallets, holding 100 to 1,000 BTC. In the past week, shark wallets filled up with 65,000 BTC, surpassing the buying of ETFs and treasuries.
Shark wallets are one of the biggest accumulators of BTC. In the past week, those wallets absorbed 65,000 BTC, surpassing ETFs and treasury purchases. For the past week, ETFs added an estimated 17,767 BTC, while companies added 12,573 BTC.
While there may be an overlap between corporate wallets and shark wallets, the larger inflows suggest a period of silent accumulation, not linked to any widely known organization or corporation.
Shark wallets signal accumulation before BTC rallies
Shark wallets have grown in both number and absolute holdings in the past year. Based on CryptoQuant data, shark wallets are the biggest factor for a supply squeeze.
For the past 12 months, over 3,000 new shark wallets were created, for a total of 16,430 shark addresses in September. Accumulation in those wallets also accelerated in the past few days. In total, shark wallets hold around 3.8% of the BTC supply, as a mix of potential corporate entities, retail, and whales, with the intention of trading or holding.
Treasury-building whales may be showing some signs of fatigue, but this does not affect shark wallets, which accelerated their buying in September.
According to CryptoQuant, shark wallets boost two major trends – outflows from exchanges and long-term holding. Medium-range buyers suggest some of the coins on exchanges may be sent to self-custodied wallets for long-term storage.
Even for treasuries, the cut-off BTC ownership is now up to 83 BTC, close to the range of the smaller shark wallets. Regular sharks are thus getting close to the range of treasury holders, adding to the narrative of long-term storage value for BTC.
BTC flows out of exchanges, but Binance deposits grow
The total supply of BTC available on exchanges has fallen further to 2.4M coins. This includes all markets, even smaller platforms with a worse reputation. BTC withdrawals may be due to demand for self-custody or a shift to derivative trading.
Spot exchanges hold a little over 1M BTC, comparable to the reserves of corporate buyers. The buying in the past year is seen as adding to the supply squeeze, as whales and long-term holders have not shown capitulation, except for limited strategic selling. Reserves are at an all-time low, with miners also holding onto their recently produced coins.
Buying behavior can also switch within days. Previously, BTC and crypto showed a dominance of market takers for sale orders. However, as BTC showed signs of recovery, market taker volume switched to buying, loading up on available coins.
The 2025 bull market comes with increased institutional and whale activity. There are still no decisive signs of retail activity, which were observed during the last stages of previous bull markets.
Based on the spot market heatmap, traders are also ready to buy the dip, establishing a strong support around $112,000 per BTC. While some traders paid attention to altcoins, BTC sees silent accumulation in preparation for the next expansion cycle.
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