Whale accumulation does not necessarily mean an increase; it may also lead to subsequent selling pressure. Please be sure to DYOR, trade cautiously, and strictly control your positions.
Article author, source: Author: Bitpush Editorial Team
In the past month, Bitcoin has seen significant fluctuations around $80,000 to $90,000 for most of the time, while altcoins have generally pulled back by 15%-40%. This is the most comfortable 'private accumulation' window for the whales. According to real-time monitoring data from Santiment and other on-chain large holder tracking platforms, whales are quietly accumulating in the following sectors, with some cryptocurrencies even reaching record accumulation levels for 2025.
1. Payment/Cross-border Settlement Sector: XRP has become the favorite of whales
With the SEC's settlement with Ripple, the XRP ETF has transitioned from expectation to reality, further stimulating whale accumulation behavior. In the past 30 days, XRP has been the most exaggerated in terms of net inflows among all altcoins:
Addresses holding between 100 million and 1 billion XRP net increased by 970 million coins
Addresses holding over 1 billion coins net increased by 15 million coins
The two types of addresses have collectively flowed in over $2.4 billion;
Exchange XRP balances continue to decline, reaching a new low since 2023.
Two, established Layer 1: Hoarding ADA against the trend
Cardano (ADA) experienced a rare 'whale rotation buying' during the 12 days from November 24 to December 4:
The wallet with the largest holdings (over 1 billion coins) began increasing its holdings on November 24, accumulating an increase of 130 million ADA to date;
Wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million coins began increasing their holdings on November 26, with an increase of 150 million ADA;
These two groups achieved net increases within a few days, indicating that even if the ADA trading price approaches recent lows, large holders remain confident;
Whales have a low cost basis; if the price can break through $0.43, it is expected to rise to $0.52. If it drops to $0.38, the bullish outlook will weaken, and reversal signals may fail.
Three, DeFi blue chips: UNI and AAVE were both swept up
UNI: In the past week, whales added about 800,000 coins (worth nearly $5 million). After the fee switch vote passed, the top 100 addresses collectively held 8.98 million UNI, showing strong accumulation momentum, while the supply on exchanges continues to decrease.
AAVE: Whales added more than 50,000 coins to their holdings in the past 30 days, with total holdings reaching an ATH of 3.98 million coins.
Commonalities of both: TVL continues to rebound + real income (fees) begins to rise, with whales laying out in advance.
Four, Meme coins: overall correction, with some being 'bought back at low prices' by whales
Main battlefield:
FARTCOIN: A single address swept up 32.43 million coins ($10.7 million) within 24 hours
PIPPIN: Whales moved 40.45 million coins ($7.28 million) within 24 hours
PEPE: In the past 30 days, whale holdings increased by 1.36%, totaling over 10 million coins. In summary, speculative funds + old money entered together, and liquidity exhaustion may lead to violent surges at any time.
Five, AI + data track: ENA and TIA are the most favored
ENA (Ethena): In the past 7 days, whale holdings increased by 2.84%, and the top 100 addresses added more than 50 million coins
TIA (Celestia): Exchange supply decreased by 5%, and both Staking ratio and TVL reached all-time highs
AI narrative + modular narrative overlap, becoming one of the high-certainty long-term tracks in this round.
Six, storage track: FIL and ICP
Starting in late November, whale addresses for FIL and ICP simultaneously showed large transfers out of exchanges, and the number of active addresses and TVL rebounded in sync, indicating that the demand for decentralized storage from AI large models is being fulfilled.
FIL: In the past 30 days, whales increased their holdings by over 100,000 coins, worth approximately $50 million; exchange supply decreased by 15%
ICP: On-chain active addresses increased by 30%, and whales transferred over 50,000 coins from exchanges; TVL rebounded to $120 million
Summary
It can be seen that the current operational logic of whales:
Corrections are buying windows; buying more as prices fall, hardly looking at short-term prices;
Prioritize choosing tracks with 'real income' or 'certainty of policy dividends';
Meme coins remain a high-risk, high-return 'lottery zone';
The long-termism track (AI, modularization, storage, privacy) has been pre-laid out by whales 2-3 quarters in advance.
Risk warning: Whale accumulation does not necessarily indicate a rise; it may also lead to subsequent selling pressure. Please be sure to DYOR, trade cautiously, and strictly control positions.