Bitcoin Loses 108,700 Wallets as Smart Money Adds 14,200 BTC
Retail is leaving Bitcoin while mid-sized wallets buy. Santiment counts 108,700 fewer non-empty wallets since October 16 as 1 to 100 BTC holders add 14,200 BTC, but $2.13 billion in spot ETF outflows keeps pressure on price near $74,500.
Bitcoin's holder base is splitting. Non-empty wallets have fallen by about 108,700 since October 16, according to Santiment data, while mid-sized wallets have been buying the dip.
Santiment counted 59.99 million non-empty Bitcoin wallets on October 16. The network now holds around 59.88 million. That is a small dent in percentage terms, but the direction matters for anyone trading the bounce.
On the other side of the ledger, "smart money" cohorts are accumulating. Santiment's figures show wallets holding 1 to 10 BTC added 10,076 BTC over two weeks, and the 10 to 100 BTC tier added 4,131 BTC, for more than 14,200 BTC combined. Santiment framed the wallet exodus as retail capitulation:
"That type of retail capitulation has historically been a necessary ingredient before many major crypto recoveries,"
Santiment, in a post on X
Price action gives retail little reason to stay. BTC trades around $74,507, down 9.86% from a month ago and below the roughly $75,700 average cost of recent buyers, which leaves the latest entrants underwater. It failed to hold a recovery toward $80,000-$81,000 in early November and slid toward $76,000. That puts it roughly 14% under its October top near $87,000, below all major moving averages, with RSI (relative strength index) around 40.
ETFs are the counterweight
The accumulation is running into heavy supply. Spot Bitcoin ETFs lost a net $2.13 billion over seven trading days from October 30, per SoSoValue data. Six of those sessions ended in outflows, including $643.3 million on October 30 alone.
Mid-sized wallets bought 14,200 BTC. ETF redemptions have been the bigger force on the other side.
Reading the wallet count
Santiment cautioned that a lower wallet count does not always mean fewer investors. In long downturns, small traders often combine or empty wallets, so part of the 108,700 drop may be housekeeping rather than exits. Exchange supply sits near 1.28 million BTC.
A falling wallet count with price holding often signals seller exhaustion. The second half of that condition is the catch. The nearest support sits at $74,000-$75,000, which is right where BTC is trading now. The recovery target is $78,000-$80,000, where several moving averages cluster.
What it means for positioning
The setup is mixed. Santiment says retail capitulation has historically preceded many major recoveries, and 1 to 100 BTC wallets are buying into it. But there are few signs of retail returning, and the market does not favor bulls, so a prolonged correction is possible even if $74,000 holds.
For context on who drove the previous leg up, see our earlier piece on existing holders driving the rally behind $5 billion in monthly inflows. Until ETF flows turn, though, that mid-tier buying has a hard time lifting price.
