Bitcoin Holders Split in Two as Retail Leaves and Smart Money Keeps Buying

Bitcoin (BTC) holders are pulling apart, with non-empty wallets down about 108,700 since October 16, Santiment data shows. Meanwhile, smart money wallets added over 14,200 BTC in the past two weeks.

The split comes with BTC at $74,507, down 9.86% from a month ago, per BeInCrypto Markets. That sits below the roughly $75,700 average cost of recent buyers.

Retail Thins Out as Bitcoin Slips Below $75,000

Santiment counted 59.99 million non-empty Bitcoin wallets on October 16, just short of 60 million. The total has fallen since then as the price slid.

However, a lower wallet count does not always mean fewer investors. Long downturns often push small traders to combine or empty wallets, Santiment noted.

"That type of retail capitulation has historically been a necessary ingredient before many major crypto recoveries," the post read.

On the other side, wallets holding 1 to 10 BTC added 10,076 BTC in two weeks. The 10 to 100 BTC tier picked up another 4,131 BTC, Santiment data shows.

Their buying, however, runs into a larger seller in Wall Street's spot funds.

Smart Money Buys, but Wall Street Funds Keep Selling

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) moved the opposite way. They lost a net $2.13 billion over seven trading days from October 30, SoSoValue data shows.