Panic Selling? Retail Flees Bitcoin (BTC) on Binance While Whales Gobble Up Discounts

Bitcoin's latest price dip triggered a classic divide: small investors ran for the exits while deep-pocketed players saw a fire sale.

The Retail Exodus

Binance order books lit up with sell orders as BTC wobbled—proof that weak hands still dominate short-term crypto trading. Meanwhile, transaction trackers spotted whale-sized accumulations in cold wallets.

Smart Money Moves

Whales aren’t accumulating out of charity—they’ve seen this cycle play out before. Retail panic creates their entry points, just like clockwork (and just like your 401k bleeding into Wall Street’s pockets).

When the dust settles, the same pattern emerges: paper hands fund diamond hands. The only question is whether retail learns this time—or just provides the next liquidity wave.

Retail Selling Into Strength

According to the latest figures shared by CryptoQuant, Binance’s 30-day retail inflow has spiked from $12 billion to over $16 billion. This was indicative of an increased selling activity as BTC’s price climbed toward recent highs.

A similar pattern emerged in April 2025, when bitcoin rose from $78,000 to $111,000 by the end of May. During this time, retail traders also offloaded significant portions of their holdings amidst the uptrend and ultimately missed out on the full upside.

This recurring behavior points to a tendency among retail investors to sell into strength. Such behaviour is likely driven by fear or short-term profit motives, rather than holding for potential further gains.

Further confirming this sell-off pattern, Binance’s Net Taker Volume has turned negative, which reflects a bearish sentiment among market takers. Negative net taker volume indicates that sellers are dominating, either by liquidating long positions or entering new short positions in anticipation of a potential pullback. This sentiment among retail traders suggests that many remain unconvinced of the rally’s sustainability.

On the other hand, whales are aggressively accumulating during this period of retail selling. Data from Whales Screener reveals that in the past 24 hours alone, whales have withdrawn over $400 million in ethereum and nearly $200 million in Bitcoin from centralized exchanges.

Such large withdrawals typically indicate a firm belief in a continued market uptrend, as whales use the liquidity from retail sellers to build positions. This behavior is consistent with past trends where retail exits during rallies while whales continue accumulating.

Bitcoin’s Path to $140K

Amid this divergence between retail selling and whale accumulation, attention is now turning to what analysts expect for Bitcoin’s next major move. Analyst Mr. Wall Street, for one, expects Bitcoin to climb to $140,000 mid-term, but warned that sell-side pressures may cap gains. The crypto asset has held above $117,000 and aims for $120,000-$123,500 short-term before a potential run toward $133,000-$140,000.

However, wallets that accumulated BTC during the 2022 lows are now offloading. This pattern was seen before previous cycle peaks.