Bitcoin Holds Steady Near $118K – Why BTC Whales Are Doubling Down

Bitcoin's price hovers just below $118K—a psychological resistance level that's got retail traders sweating. Meanwhile, whales keep stacking sats like there's no tomorrow. Here's what the smart money knows that you don't.

The whale watch is on

On-chain data shows mega-wallets absorbing supply at current levels. These aren't your average 'buy the dip' amateurs—these are cold-blooded accumulators playing a longer game.

Liquidity chess, not checkers

While paperhands panic about sideways action, institutional flows tell a different story. The $118K zone represents a key liquidity pool that's being strategically defended (and accumulated through) by players with 8-figure positions.

The cynical take

Of course Wall Street's suddenly bullish—they finally finished front-running their own clients' orders. Now watch as every traditional finance analyst becomes a 'crypto expert' just in time for the next leg up.

One thing's clear: when whales feed at these levels, retail typically follows. The only question is whether they'll be early or late to the party—again.

Key Takeaways

• The Bitcoin price action has been choppy around the $118k mark over the past two weeks, but the on-chain metrics showed strong accumulation from large market participants.

Bitcoin [BTC] has been consolidating above the $116.4k support over the past two weeks. After setting a new all-time high at $123,091 on Monday, the 14th of July, its bullish momentum has stalled.

A Satoshi-era miner contributed to a large chunk of the $2.7 billion worth of Bitcoin inflow into the centralized exchange Binance.

AMBCrypto reported that there was also evidence of profit-taking and a cautious distribution phase, marking the recent sideways price action.

Retail is selling, while large participants continue to accumulate

Source: CryptoQuant Insights

In a post on CryptoQuant Insights, crypto analyst Burak Kesmeci observed that it was the big players who were driving the current rally. The retail and large investor holdings chart showed that retail has been selling since early 2023.

On the other hand, most of 2024 and all of 2025 saw a clear accumulation on the metric. Spot ETFs, funds, and corporate acquisitions have been aggressively buying Bitcoin, underlining long-term bullish conviction from institutional investors.

On top of this, the analyst pointed out that the Google Trends score for bitcoin was still quite muted. This further demonstrated that the mass euphoria stage typical of the end of the cycle has not arrived yet.

Source: Glassnode

AMBCrypto’s analysis of the Accumulation Trend Score showed that larger entities have been accumulating since May.

The Accumulation Trend Score takes into account the size of entities and their BTC balance, and how this balance has changed over the past month.

Warmer colors indicate scores closer to 0, while cooler colors show readings closer to 1. Since the 15th of July, the trend score has been 0.95 or higher, showing that large participants were accumulating once again.

In a post on X, crypto trader and analyst Trader Mayne fleshed out the pros and cons of the Bitcoin treasury craze.

“I think the treasury narrative is just beginning for Crypto and likely gets much crazier. But I get the feeling that this will inevitably be what ends the bull run as well.”

He added,

“Peak treasury mania, think an SP500 or Nasdaq company adding Fartcoin to the balance sheet.”

Apart from on-chain metrics, this level of crypto craze could be another tangible sign of late-cycle euphoria. Investors could use such signs to take profits or even exit the market, but these events could be a few months away.