Bitcoin Sees Holder Rotation as Smaller Wallets Sell and Larger Investors Accumulate

Addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 $BTC added more than 20,000 bitcoin units while the price moved between $63,000 and $65,000.

Micro-holder wallets recorded their fastest liquidation rate since December 2024.

Network activity also climbed to a three-month high, with 712,000 active addresses over seven days and 61,800 transactions above $100,000.

During the first week of August, large Bitcoin holders steadily increased their positions and absorbed available supply while the price remained in the $63,000 to $65,000 range. At the same time, retail investors reduced their holdings at the fastest pace seen in more than a year. According to Santiment, the divergence came amid uncertainty triggered by a security flaw in Coldcard hardware wallets. Coldcard is a popular self-custody wallet device used primarily for offline Bitcoin storage, and any vulnerability in its firmware directly affects users who control their own private keys rather than relying on an exchange.

🔗 Live Chart: 🐳 Updating our previous report, Bitcoin whales & sharks are adding more and more to their wallets at this $63K – $65K level. 🦐 Meanwhile, micro holders are showing their sharpest plummet in holdings since December, 2024. 🕵️ This is… pic.twitter.com/6bpE0cv8xM — Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) August 6, 2026

🔗 Live Chart:

🐳 Updating our previous report, Bitcoin whales & sharks are adding more and more to their wallets at this $63K – $65K level.

🦐 Meanwhile, micro holders are showing their sharpest plummet in holdings since December, 2024.

🕵️ This is… pic.twitter.com/6bpE0cv8xM

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) August 6, 2026

The digital asset market is experiencing a reconfiguration in coin distribution, with smaller participants choosing to offload their holdings rapidly. This type of divergence—where large addresses accumulate while small addresses divest—has been observed in prior Bitcoin market cycles and is often tracked by on-chain analysts as an indicator of how supply is shifting between investor cohorts.

Santiment analysts said the random number generator flaw in the Coldcard firmware raised concern among network users. A flawed random number generator can compromise the cryptographic security of private keys, potentially exposing wallets to theft. As a precaution, thousands of addresses moved assets or reorganized wallets.

Data from CoinMetrics showed a temporary increase in Bitcoin balances on centralized exchanges. Santiment data also indicated that large transfers related to fund reorganization pushed on-chain activity to levels not seen in several months.

Wallet Restructuring and Regulatory Impact

Over the seven-day period tracked by Santiment, weekly active addresses on the network rose to 712,000. In the same period, transactions exceeding $100,000 reached 61,800.

According to the Santiment report, the elevated volume of large transactions reflected both preventive redistribution of funds and direct buying by institutional entities. The firm said investors holding between 10 and 10,000 $BTC used the retail pullback to accumulate more value.

The regulatory environment has also affected the behavior of smaller wallets. Uncertainty over the U.S. Senate's progress on the CLARITY Act has added caution across the sector. The CLARITY Act is a proposed bill aimed at establishing a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets, including delineating oversight responsibilities between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its legislative trajectory is being closely watched by crypto market participants because it could define which tokens are treated as commodities versus securities.

Santiment researchers said the lack of clarity on digital asset legislation slowed enthusiasm among small traders. Prolonged sideways price action further discouraged retail participants and increased selling pressure from smaller addresses.

Despite the retail selling, on-chain data points to a shift in trend probability. Santiment said sustained accumulation by large wallets at support levels typically strengthens the broader market structure.

The firm's projections suggest that Bitcoin's move above $70,000 is a more plausible scenario than a decline below the $60,000 support level. Analytics firms expect supply absorption by well-capitalized players to limit the effect of short-term retail selling.

The next key milestone for network dynamics will be the start of the U.S. Senate recess, when progress on the CLARITY regulatory bill and its implications for cryptocurrency markets are expected to be assessed.