Retail and Short-Term Holders Are Dumping Bitcoin, Whales Are Quiet

According to new on-chain data, most of the recent Bitcoin sell pressure has come from short-term holders and smaller wallets. In contrast, whales and long-term holders have reduced their activity despite market fluctuations.

The recent Bitcoin (BTC) sell pressure has been largely driven by short-term holders (STHs) and smaller wallets, while whales and long-term holders (LTHs) have reduced their activity despite market fluctuations, new on-chain data showed.

As reported by CryptoQuant, the average daily inflow volume from STHs to exchanges was 930 BTC, compared to 529 BTC from LTHs. This trend indicates that short-term participants, defined as those holding BTC for periods ranging from weeks to months, were exiting the market at a faster pace.

As seen in the chart above, the inflow volume from STHs remained consistently higher than that from LTHs from October 2024 to April 2025.

The price of Bitcoin began to become more volatile after April, reaching its peak around mid-December. As the price went down, short-term holders were selling at a greater pace, probably due to short-term losses or fear of further decline.

On the other hand, the contribution of long-term holders was very minimal, which might mean that more experienced investors are not moving large amounts of Bitcoin to exchanges.

Another CryptoQuant chart broke down the selling behavior based on wallet sizes. Since April 1 and mid-April 2025, retail and mid-sized holders have been the main sellers.

Shrimps, or wallets holding less than 1 BTC, sold an average of 480 BTC per day. Around 102 BTC were sold daily by crabs, with balances of 1 to 10 BTC. Fish, holding 10 to 100 BTC, moved 341 BTC, and sharks, with 100 to 1,000 BTC, contributed 402 BTC.

Together, these groups sold more than 1,300 BTC per day. During the same period, whales, or wallets with more than 1,000 BTC, sold only 70 BTC daily. This implies that the large players are either reducing their activity or waiting for better conditions.

"The real sell pressure is not from whales or old hands, but from retail, mid-sized cohorts (shrimps to sharks) and short-term holders—a classic shakeout," said analyst Crazzyblockk. Often, this shakeout occurs during uncertain phases when smaller investors sell out of fear of falling prices.

Furthermore, whale wallets dropped by about 30,000 BTC in a week in April 2025, which indicates the pace of whale accumulation is now at its slowest since February 2024. This doesn’t mean aggressive selling, but it does mean that there is less activity from bigger players.

According to CryptoQuant, since January, the total balance of whale wallets has been relatively stable, with brief drawdowns followed by short recovery periods.

Moreover, during this drop in accumulation, the price of Bitcoin went below $80,000, while it later recovered above $84,000. The price action here is in line with lower whale activity, meaning big investors are not so bullish right now.