Retail investors have increased purchases of Bitcoin after the price fell below $70,000, but whale behavior suggests the downturn could continue if prior patterns repeat, according to crypto sentiment firm Santiment.
Santiment said whales — addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC — “accumulated heavily” from Feb. 23 to Mar. 3, when Bitcoin traded roughly between $62,900 and $69,600. The firm added that once Bitcoin climbed past $70,000 and reached $74,000 this week, those larger holders began taking profits.
Since Wednesday’s move above $70,000 and the $74,000 peak, Santiment reported the whale cohort has offloaded about 66% of their recent buys. At the same time, retail holders — defined as addresses holding under 0.01 BTC — have been adding to positions.
“When retail buys while whales sell, it typically signals that the correction is not yet over,” Santiment said. Bitcoin was trading near $67,984 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.
The price decline knocked the Crypto Fear & Greed Index down six points, deepening its reading into “Extreme Fear” at a score of 12 on Saturday. MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe echoed the cautionary view, saying a further drop is possible if Bitcoin does not find support in the $67–68K zone; he warned a retest of lower liquidity lows could occur before any rebound.
The pullback coincided with U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs logging their largest single-day outflow since Feb. 12, with net exits of about $348.9 million across 11 ETF products, per Farside data.
Bitcoin previously fell as low as $60,000 on Feb. 6 during its decline from the October all-time high near $126,000 before showing a mild recovery. Economist Timothy Peterson noted that $60,000 has historically marked a bottom for Bitcoin and suggested there is about a 99.5% chance it remains above that level for the time being.
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
