Crypto whales accumulate 3.06M BTC as bear market nears late stage

Large holders across Bitcoin, ether and XRP are adding supply as prices trade near or below their realized cost basis, a pattern CryptoQuant links to the final phase of a bear market.

Bitcoin whale balances rose to about 3.06 million BTC from 2.87 million in December, with accumulation accelerating after prices fell below $60,000 in June.

"This positioning aligns with the final phase of a market cycle downturn, helping to ease downward pressure," Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said.

Ethereum wallets holding 10,000 to 100,000 ETH reached a record 19.6 million ETH, up from about 14 million in mid-2025, while "mega whales" above 100,000 ETH added roughly 1.8 million ETH, a near-70 percent increase. XRP spot order sizes stayed in "large whale" territory as the token traded between $1.00 and $1.20, with a neutral cumulative volume delta pointing to passive absorption rather than aggressive buying.

Bitcoin traded near $64,640 on Aug. 5, above its realized price of about $52,900, while ether at roughly $1,900 sat below its $2,450 cost basis. A sustained break above $66,900 could open a path toward $82,000, while a loss of $57,000 support might expose a decline toward $50,000, according to TradingView technical analysis.

Ether's strong hands absorb weak-hand supply

Moreno described the ether pattern as "strong hands absorbing weak-hand supply," noting that concentrating ownership among large holders shrinks the immediately tradeable float. The 1,000-to-10,000 ETH cohort cut its position to 12.9 million ETH from about 15.6 million in January, while staked ether reached 37.85 million, according to CryptoQuant data. Ether traded at $1,871, up 0.44 percent, with spot ether ETFs drawing $53.75 million in inflows on Aug. 4.

XRP's quiet accumulation faces token-economics headwinds

On Binance, wallets moving more than one million XRP accounted for 55.3 percent of daily XRP outflows, and the exchange's XRP supply ratio fell to 0.03, crypto analyst Xaif Crypto noted. XRP traded near $1.07, still 72 percent below its January 2018 all-time high of $3.84, with support near $1.01 and resistance around $1.18. Unlike Bitcoin's programmed halvings or ether's staking and fee burns, the XRP Ledger burns just 0.00001 XRP per transaction, and circulating supply has grown to about 63 billion coins from roughly 34 billion at the 2018 peak. Ripple's business settles primarily in its RLUSD stablecoin, which has surpassed $1.5 billion in market capitalization, rather than XRP.

Total crypto market capitalization edged up 0.56 percent to $2.19 trillion over 24 hours, with spot bitcoin ETFs drawing $211.49 million in inflows on Aug. 4. 10x Research said bitcoin could confirm a bear-market bottom with a monthly close above $63,000, while K33 noted the asset has historically reached cycle lows within weeks after more than half of circulating supply moved into a loss. "The risk-reward profile has improved significantly since the bear market began, but from a valuation perspective, there is still room for one more leg down before a market bottom is confirmed," Moreno said.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.