Bitcoin logo$62,983.46+0.16%
OverviewAre People Buying or Selling?Big Holders

WHALE FLOW

Are the Biggest Holders Buying or Selling?

The biggest wallets sometimes move before the rest of the market — here's what they're doing.

Updated 19 hours ago
maketomaketo.com/indicator/whale-flow7.00M7.20M7.40M7.60M7.80M8.00M2020202120222023202420252026TODAY7.18M BTC

How much Bitcoin the biggest wallets (1,000+ BTC) hold, over the years. The line is the stock they sit on; whether they're adding or letting go right now is the read below.

  1. Are big holders buying or selling?

    BUYING

    The biggest holders are buying.

    This is a noisier read than most. Some of these wallets are exchanges, ETFs, and custody addresses, so a balance change isn't always a real buy or sell.

    ↑ Added about 80K BTC over the past month

  2. How have they moved, by timeframe?

    How big holders have moved, by timeframe
    Last 7 days
    +4K BTC(+0.1%)
    BUYING
    Last 30 days
    +80K BTC(+1.1%)
    BUYING
    Last 90 days
    +35K BTC(+0.5%)
    BUYING

    Big holders have added across all three timeframes — sustained, broad buying.

    Each figure is the net change over that trailing stretch, and the windows overlap — so a bigger 30-day number than 90-day just means the move picked up recently.

  3. The very biggest versus the rest?

    The very biggest vs the rest
    The very biggest
    86wallets · 10,000+ BTC each
    +13K BTC
    30-day flow · buying
    −1 wallets changed in 30 days
    Mostly large exchanges, ETF custodians, and a few of the wealthiest treasuries.
    Other large wallets
    1,954wallets · 1,000–10,000 BTC each
    +67K BTC
    30-day flow · buying
    18 crossed above the line in 30 days
    Funds, large individual holders, and smaller custody.
    What this means

    Both the very biggest and the other large wallets are adding. The whole group is moving together — broader conviction.

    How we count big holders. We count big holders as wallets sitting on at least 1,000 BTC, and the very biggest as those holding 10,000 BTC or more.

  4. How big is this group?

    36.1%
    of all Bitcoin sits with 2,040 wallets — about 0.0036% of all Bitcoin wallets.
    3,520 BTC
    average big-holder balance — about $221.7M at today's price.
    1 in 27,700
    Bitcoin wallets is a big-holder wallet.

  5. What’s changed this month?

    • Big holders added about 80.0K BTC over the past month.
    • Same direction held across all three timeframes — 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day.
    • About 18 wallets crossed above the big-holder threshold this month.
    • The very biggest and the other large wallets are both adding — broader than one giant wallet.

  6. What can and can’t this tell you?

    What it tells us
    Whether large-wallet balances are rising or falling
    Whether the move is broad or concentrated in one tier
    Whether large wallets are near recent highs or lows
    What it can't tell us
    Whether an exchange wallet is one buyer or millions of customers
    Whether a transfer was a real sale or just a custody move
    Whether a big trade happened off-chain (it won't show here)
    Exactly where the line is drawn (a wallet with 1,001 BTC counts; one with 999 doesn't)

  7. What would change this read?

    • If big holders flip to net selling across timeframes — especially if it speeds up — that's the turn to watch; heavy selling has historically come before weakness.
    • Watch the very-biggest vs other-large split — if they diverge (one buying, one letting go), the signal gets murkier.
    • Sustained selling that accelerates is more cautionary than a single month of outflows.
ETFs & Funds →
The institutional money.
Miners →
The other big structural seller.
Patient Holders →
The long-term base.
Where are we in the cycle? →
The bigger picture this feeds into.

Understanding Whale Flow

What we mean by big holders. This page tracks wallets holding at least 1,000 BTC — well over a hundred million dollars each at today's price. There are around 2,000 of these wallets globally. They include major exchange cold wallets, spot Bitcoin ETF custodians, large treasuries, sizable funds, and the wealthiest individual holders. The page also tracks the very top tier separately — wallets holding at least 10,000 BTC (around 90 of them), which is dominated by exchanges and ETFs. These are often called 'whales' in crypto — but you don't need the slang to read the page.

What 'flow' means. We measure how much Bitcoin this group holds today versus 7, 30, and 90 days ago. When the total goes up, more Bitcoin is sitting in big-holder wallets — they're adding. When it goes down, less is sitting there — they're letting go. The actual buying or selling happens through exchanges, OTC desks, and other venues we can't see directly, but the resulting on-chain balance changes reveal the direction.

Why this might be a leading indicator. Large holders often have longer time horizons, better information, or simply more conviction than retail traders. Historically, sustained adding by this group has often preceded price rallies, and sustained selling has often preceded corrections. The signal isn't perfect — exchanges and ETFs muddy the picture, on-chain flows lag actual decisions, and big holders can be wrong too. But the direction is informative more often than not.