BTC is down by over $3,000 from its Wednesday peak.
The lackluster price movements over the past few weeks have failed to deter certain large market participants, often referred to as whales, from accumulating substantial portions of BTC.
Recent on-chain data from Lookonchain indicated that 40 newly created addresses have withdrawn over $770 million worth of the primary cryptocurrency since October 1 alone. These withdrawals were completed through Wintermute.
Whales are accumulating $BTC!
Since Oct 1, 40 newly created wallets have withdrawn 9,458 $BTC ($771.5M) from #Wintermute.
https://t.co/AR7qxcyoiU https://t.co/TfzSTKz7UF
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 23, 2026
The latest report builds on previous ones, such as CryptoQuant’s mid-month research. It stated that whales have resumed accumulation after months of selling, and the shift came amid the underlying asset’s major price recovery from under $62,000 in early August to $87,000 in September.
The data at the time said that these large wallets held just over three million BTC, which was the highest combined balance since November 21, 2025. Another report from earlier this week claimed that these large market participants had purchased almost 89,000 BTC in just one month.
Bitcoin’s price movements, though, have been quite unimpressive in the past few weeks. Despite expectations for Uptober, the asset was rejected at $87,000 on a couple of occasions and eventually dipped below $80,000.
Its rebound took it to $85,000 earlier this week, where the quickly deteriorating macro landscape served as another hurdle on its path forward. In the following 36 hours, the cryptocurrency crashed by over $3,000 and now sits below $82,000.
