Key Insights:
- Bitcoin (BTC) price only needs to reclaim $95,000 to steady the market again, said a top analyst.
- Whales and shark wallets kept buying and have added over 36,322 BTC to their portfolio over the past nine days.
- Santiment said retail wallets holding less than 0.01 BTC sold 132 BTC over the same stretch, worth roughly $11.66 million.
Bitcoin (BTC) price only needs to reclaim $95,000 to steady the market again, a top analyst said, as traders look for a clean reset after the latest chop.
At the same time, Santiment pointed to a striking split in behavior. While smaller holders sold into the weakness, whales and shark wallets kept buying. Over the past nine days, that group added 36,322 BTC.
That kind of steady accumulation matters because it often shows up before the price responds. Santiment said the aggressive buying could be setting up a long-term bullish divergence, leaving crypto in what it described as optimal conditions for a breakout.
Whales Stack 36,322 BTC as Bitcoin Price Fights to Reclaim $95K
Santiment said Bitcoin whales and shark wallets are still in buying mode. The firm shared the update on X on Tuesday, even as Bitcoin slid 4.55% over the past 24 hours and traded near $89,110 at the time.
That buying showed up clearly in the data. Between January 10 and January 19, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC, often seen as smart money, added about $3.21 billion worth of Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, smaller players moved the other way. Santiment said retail wallets holding less than 0.01 BTC sold 132 Bitcoin over the same stretch, worth roughly $11.66 million.
Santiment said crypto tends to break out when smart money keeps buying while retail traders keep selling.
Santiment said the noise around geopolitics hasn’t changed the bigger setup. Whales are still buying while retail keeps selling, and that split is continuing to build what the firm described as a long-term bullish divergence.
That backdrop matters because Bitcoin price has been headline-sensitive since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. When he starts talking tariffs, traders don’t wait around. Risk comes off the table, and Bitcoin USD often jerks lower before the dust settles.
The same pattern showed up again on Monday. Trump raised the idea of tariffs on eight European countries as part of his push to claim Greenland, and Bitcoin quickly slid almost 7%.
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said last week that most retail traders have drifted out of the Bitcoin market, even as whales keep adding to their positions.
Even so, Bitcoin USD hasn’t faded from the spotlight. Santiment said on Tuesday that online crypto chatter around BTC has picked up sharply, putting it back at the center of the conversation.
Much of that chatter now links Bitcoin to traditional safe havens. Traders keep comparing it to gold and silver, especially after both metals hit fresh all-time highs on Monday as geopolitical tensions climbed.
Market Sentiment Softens as Bitcoin USD Dominates Attention
Other signals show traders are still playing defense. Bitcoin price today is still the main event.
Everything else is fighting for attention, and traders aren’t showing the same level of conviction outside BTC price.
That caution shows up in sentiment data. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index printed a fear reading of 32 in Tuesday’s update.
That Bitcoin-first mood shows up in the numbers, too. The Altcoin Season Index still tilts strongly toward BTC, with a Bitcoin score of 29 out of 100 after comparing the top 100 altcoins against Bitcoin over the past 90 days.
Delaware Life Brings Bitcoin Into a Retirement Annuity Offering
Delaware Life Insurance Company is bringing a small dose of Bitcoin exposure into its retirement annuity portfolio using an index built by BlackRock.
The new index mixes U.S. stocks with a modest, risk-managed Bitcoin allocation. Instead of buying and holding Bitcoin USD directly, investors get that exposure through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
The index pairs U.S. stocks with a managed slice of Bitcoin (BTC) exposure. It also uses volatility controls meant to keep swings near 12%, which helps smooth out sharp moves.
Delaware Life said this setup lets policyholders track Bitcoin price action indirectly, while still keeping their principal protected under the annuity’s rules.
The company plans to roll the index out across three of its fixed indexed annuity products. These are insurance-based retirement plans that protect the original investment and let gains grow tax-deferred.
Instead of owning assets outright, the return is linked to how a chosen market index performs.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/01/21/bitcoin-price-could-reclaim-95000-after-3-2b-in-smart-money-inflows/
