By the end of 2025, the cryptocurrency market presented a contradictory picture. Analysts at Santiment examined the situation by comparing the actions of major players and retail investors.
📊 As 2025 comes to a close, we compare the activity of Bitcoin’s whales & sharks (smart money) vs. Bitcoin’s retail (small money).
🐳 Wallets with 10-10K $BTC: +0.36% More Coins Since July 1st
🦐 Wallets with under 0.1 $BTC: +3.31% More Coins Since July 1st🧑🍳 Historically,… pic.twitter.com/34h5ZImzak
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 30, 2025
Since July 1, wallets with balances under 0.1 BTC increased their holdings by 3.31%. Meanwhile, addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC expanded their positions by only 0.36%.
Experts have described this trend as concerning. Historically, a bullish trend emerges when whales accumulate assets by purchasing from disenchanted small holders.
In the latter half of 2025, the opposite scenario unfolded: retail investors were actively buying, while major players remained passive or took profits at October’s peaks.
Social Apathy
Simultaneously, interest in the asset is waning. According to analyst Oro Crypto, Bitcoin’s “social volume” is declining: even sharp price swings no longer spark lively discussions, and the coin’s mentions have dropped to single digits.
Social Apathy and Expanding Liquidity: An Underestimated Combination
Overview: @santimentfeedRecent data from Santiment shows a sustained decline in Bitcoin Social Volume despite continued price volatility. This divergence between… pic.twitter.com/m6Bdi5LR47
— Oro Crypto (@oro_crypto) December 30, 2025
Typically, a market peak is accompanied by euphoria and widespread retail interest. The current situation indicates emotional burnout and apathy. The expert views this as a sign of consolidation or reaccumulation, rather than the end of a cycle.
The decline in interest is confirmed by reduced trading volumes. Santiment recorded minimal activity in the last two weeks of the year.
📊 Trading volume has predictably dipped in the final weeks of 2025 with markets staying flat and unpredictable, as well as holidays pulling traders away from their devices.
📉 Regardless, barring a sudden surprise burst in price volatility, Bitcoin and altcoins have seen their… pic.twitter.com/HIoRE1bqHA
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 30, 2025
Unlike the end of 2024, when altcoins like Solana and Dogecoin showed growth, trading volumes have halved.
Trader Positioning and Long-term Holders
According to the Alphractal platform, the ratio of long to short positions is increasing.
⚠️Bitcoin’s Long/Short Ratio is rising again, signaling strong trader interest in long positions.
What’s truly remarkable is that this is the first time in history that Bitcoin’s Long/Short Ratio has remained elevated for such a long period relative to altcoins.
Historically,… pic.twitter.com/NrIOomNtje
— Alphractal (@Alphractal) December 31, 2025
Despite traders’ aggressive bets on the rise of the leading cryptocurrency, the asset’s price does not respond to the increase in long positions. This discrepancy poses a risk of the market moving against the consensus.
Long-term investors are sending a positive signal: VanEck researcher Matthew Sigel noted that holders have turned net accumulators for the first time since 2019. This reduces the selling pressure observed earlier.
BTC: Long-term holders turn net accumulators, easing a major Bitcoin headwind and ending, for now, the largest sell pressure event from this cohort since 2019. pic.twitter.com/tWFu7pna41
— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) December 30, 2025
Earlier, trader Bull Theory compared Bitcoin’s sideways movement to “the calm before the storm.”