21 January 2026
Bitcoin’s exchange-side supply signal is flashing a notable change: whale-sized transfers into Binance have dropped sharply from late-November panic levels, suggesting large holders are no longer leaning on the sell button with the same urgency.
Selling Pressure From Bitcoin Whales Fade
CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost said current data shows a “clear decline in whale transactions,” specifically BTC inflows to exchanges, meaning “large holders are sending significantly less BTC to trading platforms than before.”
In the post, the chart focus was Binance inflows segmented by transaction size, spanning transfers from 100 BTC up to the largest prints above 10,000 BTC, flows that are commonly interpreted as potential sell-side positioning when they hit an exchange.
The key backdrop in Darkfost’s thread is how quickly whale behavior shifted around the market’s late-2025 drawdown. “December has been particularly challenging, even for these investors,” the analyst wrote, adding that whales are typically “more cautious” and “less sensitive to market movements than retail participants,” often acting with “greater discipline and patience.”
That discipline appeared to crack as Bitcoin rolled over from its latest all-time high near $126,000. Darkfost described a surge in whale inflows to Binance at the end of November as BTC “continued its correction,” with the “average monthly total” reaching “nearly $8 billion” during a period when BTC “fell back below the $90,000 level.”
“This phase clearly triggered a panic-driven move,” the post said. “Transactions ranging between 100 and 10,000 BTC increased significantly, especially as price broke below the $85,000 level. This behavior reflects real stress among certain whales, who chose to sell quickly in order to limit losses, thereby reinforcing selling pressure on the market.”
The crux is what changed since that cluster. “Today, the situation looks very different,” Darkfost wrote. Those Binance inflows “have been divided by three and now stand at around $2.74 billion,” with “daily movements” becoming “far less frequent than during the cluster observed at the end of November.”
The analyst framed the drop as an observable behavioral pivot rather than a single-day anomaly. “This shift in dynamics suggests that whales have changed their behavior,” Darkfost wrote. “They are no longer selling aggressively and now appear to favor waiting.”
Institutional Demand Side Remains Robust
While Darkfost’s post focuses on whale-associated inflows as a proxy for potential sell pressure, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju pointed investors to the other side of the ledger: institutional accumulation.
“Institutional demand for Bitcoin remains strong,” Ki wrote on X. “US custody wallets typically hold 100–1,000 BTC each. Excluding exchanges and miners, this gives a rough read on institutional demand. ETF holdings included.”
Ki added that “577K BTC ($53B) [was] added over the past year, and still flowing in,” characterizing the trend as ongoing rather than a completed wave.
At press time, Bitcoin traded at $90,885.
