Retail Investors Buying Bitcoin Under $70K While Whales Sell—Santiment Warns Dip May Continue
According to crypto sentiment platform Santiment, whale investors have engaged in aggressive selling activity since Bitcoin reached $74,000, while smaller retail traders have been purchasing the dip, a pattern that suggests the possibility of additional price declines.
Smaller retail traders have been purchasing Bitcoin following its drop beneath the $70,000 threshold, though whale trading patterns indicate the cryptocurrency's price may experience further downward movement if historical trends hold true, data from crypto sentiment platform Santiment suggests.
"The moment Bitcoin hit $74k, these key stakeholders began taking profit," Santiment said in a report on Friday.
According to Santiment's analysis, whale investors — defined as addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) — "accumulated heavily" during the period spanning Feb. 23 through Mar. 3, a timeframe when Bitcoin's trading range was between $62,900 and $69,600.
Starting Wednesday, when Bitcoin surged beyond $70,000 and reached a peak of $74,000, this whale cohort has sold off approximately 66% of what they had recently acquired, according to Santiment's data. At the same time, smaller retail traders — defined as wallets containing less than 0.01 Bitcoin — have been expanding their holdings.
Correction may not be over yet, says Santiment
"When retail buys while whales sell, it typically signals that the correction is not yet over," Santiment said. Bitcoin is trading at $67,984 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.
The decline in Bitcoin's price caused the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to drop by 6 points, driving it deeper into "Extreme Fear" territory where it registered a score of 12 on Saturday.
A comparable perspective was shared by MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe, who indicated that additional price drops remain a possibility. "If Bitcoin doesn't find support in this $67-68K region, then we're likely going to retest the lows for liquidity before bouncing back upwards," van de Poppe said in an X post on Friday.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs post largest outflow day in three weeks
This price decline occurred in tandem with US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs recording their biggest single-day outflow event since Feb. 12, totaling $348.9 million in net withdrawals across the 11 ETF products, based on data from Farside.
During its downward trajectory from the October all-time high of $126,000, Bitcoin's price dropped as low as $60,000 on Feb. 6 before demonstrating a moderate recovery. Economist Timothy Peterson believes this price level may represent the current floor.
"This valuation level has always marked a bottom for Bitcoin. About 99.5% chance it stays above $60k," Peterson said in an X post, referring to the Bitcoin Price to Metcalfe Value chart.