Bitcoin Smashes ATH Just as Retail Throws in the Towel—Contrarian Masterstroke or Market Manipulation?

Bitcoin's latest bull run defies the herd mentality—again. Just as mom-and-pop investors capitulated, the king of crypto punched through its all-time high. Classic whale behavior or a sign of smarter money moving in?

The timing couldn't be more poetic. Retail traders dumped positions after months of sideways action, only to watch institutional players ride the wave to new peaks. Sound familiar? It's the 2017 and 2021 playbook rewritten with 2025's deeper liquidity.

Market cycles may change, but human psychology doesn't. While Wall Street's crypto desks quietly accumulate, Main Street still chases pumps and dumps. Maybe that's why Goldman Sachs now offers BTC-collateralized loans while your neighbor complains about Coinbase fees.

One thing's clear: in crypto, the 'dumb money' isn't who you think. When retail flees and prices soar, ask yourself—who's really being contrarian here?

Bitcoin Total Amount Of Holders Saw A Decrease Recently

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, there has been a drop in bitcoin retail investors recently. The metric of interest here is the “Total Amount of Holders,” which measures, as its name suggests, the total number of addresses on the BTC network that are carrying some non-zero balance.

When the value of this metric rises, it can be due to a number of reasons. New investors joining the network and old ones who had sold earlier returning both naturally lead to an uptick in the indicator. Similarly, existing users creating multiple wallets to manage their holdings or for a purpose like privacy also adds to the trend.

In general, all of these factors can be assumed to simultaneously be at play to some degree, which means that a net amount of adoption can be considered to be occurring whenever the Total Amount of Holders registers an increase.

Now, here is the chart shared by the analytics firm that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Total Amount of Holders over the last few months:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Total Amount of Holders has recently been on the way down, indicating that a net amount of holders have been liquidating their wallets, potentially to exit the market.

Which type of investors are these likely to be? The answer is retail. These holders massively outweigh the larger entities like whales in population, so the trend in the Total Amount of Holders tends to represent the behavior of the retail investors.

The latest exodus from the small hands has led into BTC’s breakout to a new ATH beyond the $113,000 level. From the chart, it’s visible this is not actually an unusual trend, as past periods of selling from the retail cohort have also preceded bullish price action in the cryptocurrency.

As Santiment notes,

When retail shows FUD (whether through fear or impatience), these are usually prime spots for smart money to MOVE in and accumulate. This time has been no different.

This pattern is another case of the Bitcoin market being probable to move in the direction that the crowd least expects. An excess of fear usually tends to lead into bullish reversals, while overhype may result in tops.

It now remains to be seen how the Total Amount of Holders trend WOULD shift now that BTC is rallying. A sharp reversal in the metric could naturally imply the retail crowd is now feeling Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO).

BTC Price

Bitcoin is in ATH exploration mode as its price is currently floating around $113,600.