Crypto.com’s Cronos, Bitget Token, and Circle’s USDC have seen a surge in whale activity over the past seven days, even as the two exchange tokens’ prices have slumped by more than 7% in that period.
On-chain analysis from Santiment Feed shows that Cronos and Bitget Token recorded the steepest week-on-week increases in whale activity among tokens with market capitalizations above $500 million. Whale transactions on Cronos jumped by more than 1,100% compared with the previous week, while Bitget Token activity climbed by 800%.
USDC on Optimism also ticked upwards more than fivefold over the same period, placing the stablecoin among the most transferred assets despite its price peg to $1.
Whale activity mulls an impending increase in exchange trading volumes
According to Santiment’s research, an uptrend in whale crypto exchange-affiliated token transfers usually precedes a phase of spiked volatility and changes in liquidity. During earlier market cycles, surges in whale transfers on Cronos coincided with increases in on-chain transactions and centralized exchange volumes on Crypto.com.
Cronos, Bitget, and USDC whale transactions chart. Source: Santiment.
CRO whale transactions jumped 1,111% over the past seven days, according to Santiment. The surge came despite a 75% drop in 30-day whale activity, while CRO’s price fell 0.5% and daily trading volume declined more than 25%.
Whale transactions for BGB increased by 800% compared with the previous week. Unlike Cronos, Bitget token saw a modest short-term price uptick, gaining about 0.25% on the day, while trading volume increased by 75%.
Over a 30-day horizon, however, whale activity for BGB was still down around 16%, likely from a sudden but localized resurgence in large transfers. At the time of this reporting, BGB was trading at $3.65, with a 24-hour trading volume of $110 million.
“This is a strong sign that whales are repositioning inside ecosystems. Both CRO and BGB whale spikes often precede trading volume jumps, and means both platforms are very likely getting much higher usage than usual,” Santiment wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, stablecoin USD Coin transactions on Optimism climbed by about 528% compared with the previous week and 94 % on a 30-day basis, while daily trading volume declined by nearly 22%. On the same blockchain network, Wrapped Ether activity rose by 710% week over week, on the backdrop of a strong rebound in 30-day whale activity, which was up more than 132%.
Bitcoin whales in an accumulation spree, bull market incoming?
The spike in altcoin and stablecoin whale activity comes on the heels of a sustained accumulation phase by Bitcoin whales since the year began. According to CryptoQuant’s charts tracking inflows to Bitcoin accumulation addresses, large holders have been adding coins to their portfolio even though the coin dropped from its year-high $97,000 to levels below $90,000.
BTC exchange inflows. Source: CryptoQuant.
From early January through late 2025, Bitcoin inflows to accumulation addresses were mostly in the high. Through mid-year, the market saw notable spikes in July and August when inflows surged above 10,000 BTC for some days.
In October and November, inflows to accumulation addresses accelerated, with several sessions recording inflows of 20,000 BTC or more. The data shows that by the early days of the new year, daily inflows briefly reached the upper end of the observed range, nearing 40,000 BTC last week.
Wallets held by short-term holders, defined as those under five months old and holding more than 1,000 BTC, also increased steadily throughout late 2025. Even after the October 10 liquidation event that took almost $20 billion away from markets, the number of these wallets was on the uptrend heading into January.
