Retail Investors Double BTC Deposits on Binance

Private investors have nearly doubled their Bitcoin (BTC) deposits on Binance since April, reaching a six-month high. Large investors, or whales, have been moving in the opposite direction for almost two months.

The flows of private traders and whales often diverge. According to CryptoQuant, the volume of retail deposits is 2.8 times higher than that of whales.

Retail uses the rebound to exit

Over the month, total retail deposits increased from $5.5 billion in April to $10.75 billion. This is $6.95 billion more than that of whales. The 30-day sum takes into account all deposits for the month, smoothing out the impact of single spikes.

A deposit itself does not mean a sale, but coins are most often transferred to where they are sold. This dynamic may indicate that small investors are using the rebound to lock in their positions at a more favorable price.

Will whales hold positions if the price rises

For comparison, whale deposits on Binance have decreased by 36% over two months, from $5.9 billion to $3.8 billion. It is important to note that $3.8 billion is a large sum, so this is a slowdown, not a stop in outflows.

The fact that whales are not rushing to transfer assets to exchanges hints at their reluctance to sell at current prices. However, this data only pertains to Binance—other trading platforms may show a different picture.

Such a scenario has been seen in on-chain analytics data before: whales increased their over-the-counter holdings several weeks before the October U.S. inflation report. Then, after the report, Bitcoin lost 3.3% in 24 hours, but whale deposits have not increased since then.

The separation of flows helps to see who will supply coins to Binance with further growth. If the price continues to rise and whale deposits remain low, the main volume of sales may come from private investors. If whales resume deposits, the market will see supply from large holders as well.