Bitcoin’s Supply Shock Brewing? Whales Retreat as Long-Term Holders Scoop Up $49B

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<a href="https://pricpr.com/btc-usd/">Bitcoin</a> Supply Shock Brewing? Whales Step Back As Long-Term Holders Absorb $49B

While Bitcoin’s price isn’t telling us much right now, there’s a significant shift happening behind the scenes regarding who owns it.

Data from CryptoQuant reveals a notable shift in market behavior: one group of investors is reducing their activity on exchanges at the fastest rate in almost a year, while another is steadily increasing their presence in a significant way.

Whale Inflows On Binance Fall To Multi-Month Lows

Large cryptocurrency investors, known as whales, have significantly reduced the amount of funds they’re sending to the Binance exchange. Recent data from CryptoQuant shows these inflows have dropped to $2.96 billion – the lowest level since June 2025.

The recent decrease in exchange inflows is a change from the high levels seen between February and early March. During that time, inflows were consistently over $6 billion, even reaching $8 billion for a short period.

This information is important because when large cryptocurrency holders (often called ‘whales’) start sending funds to exchanges, it usually means they plan to sell or move their assets. If these inflows decrease and stop, it suggests that these major players are no longer quickly trying to sell off their holdings.

BTC– Binance Whale To Exchange Flow

 

Meanwhile, investors who plan to hold for the long term are actively increasing their positions. We can see this by tracking how much value is moving into long-term storage – this reached $49 billion on April 9, indicating significant rebuilding of holdings.

This difference is easy to see when looking at short-term investors. They’ve experienced a $54 billion loss in value, marking the third time since early March that their losses have exceeded $50 billion over a 30-day period.

The data suggests that traders who react quickly to market changes are selling when prices drop, while investors with a longer-term outlook are taking advantage of those lower prices, which is reducing the available supply.

BTC: STH LTH Net Position Realized Cap

The Setup For A Squeeze Is Building

Supply of cryptocurrencies is getting tighter, and data suggests a potential ‘short squeeze’ could be coming. This means many traders are betting the price will go down (short positions) with borrowed funds, while the actual amount of crypto available on exchanges is decreasing. This combination could force those betting against the market to buy back in, driving the price up.

As a researcher tracking cryptocurrency markets, I’ve observed a consistent trend of negative funding rates across major exchanges. On April 10th, the rate was -0.0118%, and on April 11th, it was -0.0101%. These two consecutive sessions showed significantly negative values. In fact, since late March, we’ve primarily seen negative funding, and throughout April, the rate hasn’t turned positive even once.

Bitcoin Funding Rates 

Currently, short sellers are having to pay money to maintain their bets against the market, indicating a lot of people are positioned for a price drop – potentially too many. At the same time, the total amount of open interest – representing the number of outstanding contracts – increased from approximately $21.87 billion on April 6th to $24.37 billion by April 10th. This combination of rising open interest and negative funding rates often signals that many traders are aggressively building up short positions with borrowed money.

The available supply of Bitcoin is decreasing. A significant amount of Bitcoin—around 7,900 BTC—was withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges on April 9th and 10th, indicating people are moving their coins to personal storage.

Outside of traditional exchanges, the amount of cryptocurrency held by over-the-counter (OTC) desks has decreased over the past 30 days. This suggests that institutions or large investors are buying up available supply privately, rather than on public markets.

Bitcoin Total OTC Desk Balance

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2026-04-12 17:11