CryptoQuant says Bitcoin, Ether and XRP whales are accumulating late in bear market

Large holders of Bitcoin, Ether and XRP have kept accumulating as crypto prices remain under pressure, reinforcing CryptoQuant's view that valuations are moving toward conditions typically seen in the final stage of a bear market. Bitcoin whale balances excluding exchanges, mining pools, ETFs and digital-asset treasury companies rose to about 3.06 million BTC from roughly 2.87 million BTC in December 2025, stayed in 30-day positive growth for most of 2026 and accelerated after BTC fell below $60,000 in June, though holdings remain below the prior 2025 bull-market peak of about 3.23 million BTC. Ethereum wallets holding 10,000 to 100,000 ETH climbed from roughly 14 million ETH in mid-2025 to a record 19.6 million ETH, wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 ETH cut balances to 12.9 million ETH from about 15.6 million ETH in January, and wallets with more than 100,000 ETH added roughly 1.8 million ETH since mid-2025 to about 4.6 million ETH. XRP accumulation has shown up in whale-sized spot order flow while the token trades between $1.00 and $1.20, with neutral cumulative volume delta indicating passive absorption rather than aggressive buying. Bitcoin traded near $64,640 on August 5 versus a realized price of about $52,900, Ether near $1,900 versus roughly $2,450 and XRP near $1.10 versus about $0.75, while CryptoQuant warned the market could still see one more leg lower before a bottom is confirmed.