Market "Discount Season": What Are the Whales Accumulating?
Over the past month, bitcoin has experienced intense fluctuations around $80,000-$90,000 for most of the time, while altcoins have generally corrected by 15%-40%. However, this has actually provided whales with the most comfortable “private accumulation” window. According to real-time on-chain whale monitoring data tracked by Santiment and others, whales are quietly building positions in the following sectors, with accumulation intensity for some tokens even reaching new highs for 2025.
1. Payment/Cross-border Settlement Sector: XRP Becomes the Whales’ Favorite

With the settlement between the SEC and Ripple finalized, the XRP ETF has also shifted from expectation to reality, further stimulating whale accumulation. In the past 30 days, XRP has seen the most dramatic net inflow from whales among all altcoins:
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Addresses holding 100 million–1 billion XRP saw a net increase of 970 million XRP
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Addresses holding over 1 billion XRP saw a net increase of 150 million XRP
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The combined inflow for these two address types exceeded $2.4 billion;
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XRP balances on exchanges have continued to decline, reaching a new low since 2023.
2. Established Layer 1: Contrarian Accumulation of ADA

Cardano (ADA) saw an extremely rare “whale rotation buying” event over the 12 days from November 24 to December 4:
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The largest holding wallet (over 1 billion ADA) began accumulating on November 24, with a total increase of 130 million ADA to date;
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Wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million ADA started accumulating on November 26, with an increase of 150 million ADA;
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Both groups achieved net increases within a few days, indicating that even with ADA trading near recent lows, large holders remain confident;
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Whales have a low cost basis. If the price can break above $0.43, it may rise to $0.52. If it falls to $0.38, the bullish pattern will weaken and reversal signals may fail.
3. DeFi Blue Chips: UNI and AAVE Simultaneously Snapped Up

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UNI: In the past week, whales added about 800,000 UNI (worth nearly $5 million). After the fee switch vote passed, the top 100 addresses collectively hold 8.98 million UNI, showing strong accumulation momentum, while exchange supply continues to decrease.

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AAVE: In the past 30 days, whales added over 50,000 AAVE, bringing total holdings to an all-time high of 3.98 million.
Common ground for both: TVL continues to recover + real revenue (fees) is starting to rise, with whales positioning early.
4. Meme Coins: Overall Correction, Some Snapped Up by Whales at Low Prices
Main battleground:


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FARTCOIN: Single address snapped up 32.43 million tokens ($10.7 million) within 24 hours
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PIPPIN: Whales moved 40.45 million tokens ($7.28 million) within 24 hours
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PEPE: In the past 30 days, whale holdings increased by 1.36%, totaling over 10 million tokens. In short, both speculative and old money are entering, and after liquidity dries up, a violent surge could happen at any time.
5. AI + Data Sector: ENA and TIA Most Favored

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ENA (Ethena): In the past 7 days, whale holdings increased by 2.84%, with the top 100 addresses adding over 50 million tokens
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TIA (Celestia): Exchange supply dropped by 5%, while staking ratio and TVL both hit all-time highs
The combination of AI narrative and modular narrative has made this one of the most certain long-term sectors in this cycle.
6. Storage Sector: FIL and ICP
Since late November, whale addresses for both FIL and ICP have seen large withdrawals from exchanges, with the number of active addresses and TVL rebounding simultaneously. The demand from AI large models for decentralized storage is being realized.
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FIL: In the past 30 days, whale holdings increased by over 100,000 tokens, worth about $50 million; exchange supply dropped by 15%
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ICP: On-chain active addresses increased by 30%, whales withdrew over 50,000 tokens from exchanges; TVL rebounded to $120 million
Summary
It is clear that the current logic of whale operations is as follows:
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Corrections are buying windows—the more it drops, the more they buy, with little regard for short-term prices;
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Priority is given to sectors with “real revenue” or “policy certainty”;
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Meme coins remain a high-risk, high-reward “lottery zone”;
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Long-term sectors (AI, modular, storage, privacy) have already been positioned by whales 2-3 quarters in advance.
Author: Bitpush Editorial Team
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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