Bitcoin has revisited its 2024 whale entry zone as large holders keep buying even as prices keep on falling.
Bitcoin (BTC) has slipped back to price levels last seen in October 2024, the exact moment when whales began their most recent accumulation phase.
On-chain data now shows these large holders are continuing to buy, not exit, suggesting the current downturn may be viewed as a re-entry opportunity rather than a reason to flee.
Whales Accumulate as Retail Fears Grow
According to pseudonymous market watcher CW8900, there has been a steady accumulation among large BTC and Ethereum (ETH) holders. They wrote that Bitcoin’s current price matches the zone where whales started buying in October 2024, and they claim accumulation has increased rather than slowed.
“Despite the decline in $BTC, accumulation continues. In fact, it’s increasing,” CW8900 said.
In a separate post, the analyst noted that Ethereum whales now hold positions at losses comparable to earlier cycle lows, which they described as a pattern seen near bottoms.
The expert wrote regarding the giant ETH holders,
“Their target is the upcoming rally. They are still accumulating massive amounts in preparation for a bull market.”
Market data supports the context behind those claims, with numbers from CoinGecko showing BTC changing hands near $69,000 after moving between $68,000 and $71,000 in the past day. The asset is down about 2% this week, 10% over two weeks, and nearly 28% in a month.
On its part, ETH is showing deeper losses. At the time of writing, the token was trading at just under $2,000 after falling about 40% in a month and 13% in two weeks.
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Despite the prevailing conditions, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee believes ETH will rebound fully. He pointed to eight separate drawdowns exceeding 50% that the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has faced since 2018, including a 64% drop earlier last year. In every case, the asset formed a V-shaped bottom and recovered completely.
However, not all large positions have survived. Trend Research, once Asia’s largest ETH long, closed its final position last week after accumulating $2.1 billion in leveraged longs. According to Arkham, the exit resulted in an $869 million realized loss and came even after founder Jack Yi had predicted ETH would reach $10,000 just days before.
Diverging Signals
Not all indicators are leaning bullish, as revealed by analyst Wise Crypto, who said Bitcoin’s recent 9% rebound between February 12 and February 15 may be a trap. The market technician pointed to hidden bearish divergence on 12-hour charts and a 90% surge in NUPL, which indicated a higher sell risk, with key support levels sitting at $65,000 to $66,000, and $60,000 as the major psychological floor.
To add context to that caution, a recent poll run by chartist Ali Martinez found that only 22.7% of respondents believed $60,000 was the cycle low, while the largest share expected prices to fall toward $38,000.
Interestingly, market intelligence provider Santiment has noted that BTC typically moves opposite crowd expectations, suggesting a potential rally if fear continues to dominate sentiment.
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