Santiment data shows that the total number of Bitcoin wallets holding a minimum balance of 10,000 BTC has reached 90, the highest level in six months, even as the smallest wallets have continued selling. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at approximately $64,322 at press time.

This divergence may offer insight into the next market direction. Large investors are accumulating Bitcoin while smaller traders are pulling back, and that kind of split can matter because on-chain ownership shifts often show up before the broader market narrative catches up. According to Santiment, this pattern has historically preceded major price shifts, suggesting that the probability of Bitcoin crossing the $70,000 mark is higher than it falling below $60,000.

Six New Elite Wallets in Eight Weeks

Six wallets have crossed the 10,000-BTC threshold over the past eight weeks, increasing the size of that elite group by 7.1%, according to Santiment data.

🐳 Bitcoin's elite wallet count has bounced back to a 6-month high, with 90 wallets now holding at least 10K $BTC. 📈 This is not a tiny signal. There has been a net gain of +6 wallets holding at least 10K+ BTC in the past 8 weeks, a +7.1% rise. 🦐 Micro wallet holdings have… pic.twitter.com/c2khTjHsC5 — Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) August 10, 2026

Accumulation extends further down the ownership ladder as well. Wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC — commonly described as whales and sharks — have added approximately $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin since July 29. Meanwhile, so-called micro-wallets have been shrinking throughout August.

This discrepancy coincides with two shocks that appear to have affected smaller investors more significantly than the largest holders.

Hardware Wallet Exploit and Stalled Crypto Legislation

The first shock relates to the Coldcard exploit. A firmware vulnerability that emerged in March 2021 caused affected wallets to derive their seed using a weak random number generator in the software rather than the device's entropy chip. According to information from the TFTC, affected keys had a strength of approximately 40 bits.

As of early August, TRM Labs reported losses of $116 million. Subsequently, other sources have placed the loss figures above $130 million.

The second shock came from the United States government. The Senate delayed the vote on the CLARITY Act — legislation aimed at defining the respective roles of the SEC and CFTC in digital asset regulation — until September, following opposition from the Democratic Party.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated, "The Dems are insistent on no Clarity vote." He added that proceedings concerning the bill were "queued up first thing when we come back." Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said the lack of progress "isn't the result any of us hoped for" but emphasized that "the fight is far from over."

Neither event reflects a flaw in Bitcoin itself. The Coldcard vulnerability was specific to a single manufacturer's firmware, while the CLARITY delay is a political and legislative matter. However, both may have contributed to weaker holders moving their coins toward wallets that appear more willing to hold, while also highlighting how security incidents and regulatory uncertainty can affect confidence among smaller market participants.

New Whales or the Same Custodians?

An increase in the whale tally does not necessarily signal the emergence of a new class of buyers. As previously reported, addresses concentrated around the 10,000-BTC level can reflect rearrangements in how large custodians store their balances rather than new capital flowing into Bitcoin.

According to Arkham Intelligence, the largest Bitcoin addresses are typically owned by exchanges, custodians, and ETF issuers. Coinbase, for instance, controls approximately 5% of the total supply, while BlackRock's ETF is estimated to hold 732,000 BTC. Consequently, transfers within a single issuer from its cold wallets may cause an increase in large addresses without any association to a new buyer.

This accumulation trend is not unprecedented. In January, Glassnode reported that wallets holding more than 1,000 BTC had increased from 1,207 in October to 1,303, driven by retail selling during a correction. However, Santiment noted in late July that wallets with balances between 10 and 10,000 BTC had sold off approximately 70,848 BTC since late April.

The Next Hard Signal Lands in September

The bullish case would weaken if the 10,000-plus cohort begins shrinking again or mid-sized wallets turn into net sellers over the coming month.

The Senate is scheduled to return on September 14, with a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act expected around September 15. That vote will serve as a useful test of whether institutional and large-holder demand can continue absorbing supply, or whether the current accumulation trend is losing momentum.

Are Larger Holders Gaining Influence Over Bitcoin's Supply?

A closer examination of specific addresses near the 10,000-BTC threshold reveals important nuances. The address 14FEEMRhaUwMbhf2rA1cFXmS1Zuk9nc9eq received 10,306.34 BTC in a single transaction on June 2 and has conducted no outgoing transactions since. While this wallet appears to have been newly funded with more than 10,000 BTC, it is impossible to attribute an economic owner based on publicly available information.

Conversely, the wallet bc1q7uq3u829ahn22sdlpac0h0lurq3a9yfd3ew69f held a balance of 7,269 BTC until it received 3,998.9 BTC on July 17, thereby crossing the 10,000 BTC threshold. This wallet has since received an additional 628 BTC and now holds nearly 11,900 BTC.

This distinction is significant. In the first case, the wallet could represent a new large holder, a custodian transfer, or rebalancing of an existing position. In the second, it demonstrates that an increase in 10,000-BTC wallets does not always indicate a new whale — an existing large holder may simply have crossed back over the threshold.

Therefore, while the Santiment metric on 10,000-BTC wallets remains relevant, the wallet count alone is insufficient to determine how many independent investors are entering that tier.

Are Bitcoin Whales Preparing for the Next Market Move?

The broader signal that emerges from this analysis is that Bitcoin is becoming increasingly concentrated among large holders. Whether this reflects aggressive accumulation by independent whales, institutional custody and consolidation, or a combination of both remains uncertain.

For investors, this distinction matters. A market in which independent whales are accumulating represents one form of bullish conviction. A market in which custodians, funds, and existing large holders are merely reshuffling increasingly concentrated holdings represents a fundamentally different dynamic.

The next important metric may therefore not be the raw count of Bitcoin wallets holding 10,000 BTC, but rather the amount of supply controlled by identifiable economic entities after multiple addresses are consolidated. That is where the blockchain's apparent whale surge will either become a genuine accumulation story — or reveal itself as a story about institutionalization.