Mild Moves, Big Impact: Bitcoin Wallet Trends Driving 2025

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin’s wallet tier behavior offers mixed signals for upcoming crypto trends.
• Small wallet holdings remain mostly flat, while whales show mild confidence.
• Non-empty wallet growth indicates neutral to mildly bearish market sentiment.

The recent four-week pause in Bitcoin’s bullish momentum has highlighted intriguing behaviors across wallet sizes. Analysis of wallet tiers reveals mixed indicators, which may influence the crypto market’s trajectory in 2025. As per a recent report by Santiment, wallets are categorized into four tiers: shrimps (0–0.1 BTC), fish and dolphins (0.1–10 BTC), sharks and whales (10–10,000 BTC), and top whales (10,000+ BTC).

Shrimp wallets, those holding less than 0.1 BTC, tend to decrease during bull runs as smaller traders book profits. This tier has added only a modest amount of 585 BTC since late December and has kept a flat trend – a neutral signal.

Source: Santiment

It follows that the wallets of fish and dolphins, which sold their substantial holdings during the 2024 rally, have gradually replenished their vaults with 5,604 BTC since the beginning of the year. This is viewed to indicate a mildly bearish market sentiment on account of cautious accumulation.

Source: Santiment

Whales and sharks have steadied their confidence-the main protagonists for the last rally. After hoarding more than 257,000 BTC in this bull run, they added another 2,997 BTC from January 2025. These acts are symptoms of a mild bull outlook as further depicted by this class of investors with confidence in long-term Bitcoin positioning.

Source: Santiment

Top Whale Holdings and Exchange Wallet Impact on Bitcoin Price

This tier of wallets, which represents the largest ones-including entities like Blackrock and MicroStrategy-has had very little influence on the price trends of Bitcoin. In fact, it is still very muted even when considering a sell-off of 218,000 BTC over the last six months, given its relatively small market share compared to the exchange wallets of platforms like Binance and Coinbase.

Source: Santiment

Interestingly, exchange wallets contribute much to the liquidity and distribution of Bitcoin. Very often, their activity outpaces even that of large institutional investors, which furthers market balance. The top whale tier gives a neutral signal, while the need for careful monitoring of exchange trends to understand broader market movements is highlighted.

Non-Empty Wallets and Market Sentiment

Another layer of insight is provided by Bitcoin’s total non-empty wallets. During the late 2024 rally, net drops of 130,000 wallets supported the bullish momentum as a result of smaller traders exiting. However, recent months have seen a mild rebound of 84,700 wallets, suggesting renewed interest from smaller participants.

Source: Santiment

While growing wallet numbers indicate higher adoption, the count also represents probable selling pressure from within the wallets upon rallies in a way that moderates bullishness. The current trend points to a mildly bearish outlook while small traders cautiously re-enter the markets against the core flat price actions.

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