Wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) have resumed net accumulation after weeks of heavy selling, according to on-chain data from Santiment.
The reversal coincides with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs logging their first five-day inflow streak of 2026, pulling in $767.32 million for the week per SoSoValue data.
Both developments carry conditional weight: Santiment's analysts say a confirmed market bottom requires retail investors to stop buying, not join in.
Bitcoin was trading at approximately $71,350 at the time of publication, up roughly 6.3% over seven days.
What the On-Chain Data Shows
Santiment's holder distribution data shows wallets in the 10–10,000 BTC bracket now control 68.17% of Bitcoin's total supply, up from 68.07% seven days earlier.
The 0.10 percentage point increase is modest in absolute terms but reverses a pattern from late February through early March, when the same cohort shed approximately 0.5% of total supply over five weeks.
Santiment reported on March 6 that whales had sold 66% of the Bitcoin accumulated between Feb. 23 and March 3 just as price briefly touched $74,000.
The Retail Problem
Santiment's analysis frames the bottom signal as dependent on two conditions being met simultaneously: whales accumulating while retail wallets - those holding smaller amounts - reduce their positions.
The second condition is not yet in place. Retail investors have continued buying throughout the correction, which Santiment describes as historically associated with further downside rather than bottoms.
"Historically, markets tend to bottom when the 'crowd' loses hope," Santiment said. "The persistence of retail optimism is currently the biggest argument against a confirmed bottom."
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index sat at 16 - "Extreme Fear" - on Sunday, adding a contradictory signal: sentiment surveys indicate fear, while retail transaction patterns show continued buying.
ETF Context
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $250.92 million in net inflows on Tuesday, the strongest single session of the five-day run, with the streak closing at $180.33 million on Friday per SoSoValue.
Total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs stand at approximately $91.83 billion, with cumulative net inflows at $56.14 billion.
The last comparable five-day streak occurred Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, 2025, when total inflows were $284.61 million - roughly 37% of the current week's figure.
