Quiet networks and idle supply point to social demotivation, which often appears before sentiment and price narratives flip.
Bitcoin has been trading around the mid-$60,000s after losing significant ground from its late-2025 highs. It has failed to reclaim the psychologically crucial $70,000 threshold despite several attempts.
On-chain activity of the world’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain is showing signs of stagnation, according to data shared by Alphractal.
Bearish Divergence Builds
The firm reported that Bitcoin’s active supply has stopped growing, which indicates that fewer BTC are moving across the network, and overall activity has slowed. The latest decline goes beyond market structure and reflects ” global human behavior,” as weaker prices and rising uncertainty have made participants less willing to act.
Alphractal explained that holders are increasingly keeping coins idle, which has resulted in a quieter network. This phase is being described as “social demotivation” on-chain, amid emotional fatigue, reduced engagement, and a lack of conviction. Such changes in behaviour often surface before broader market narratives change.
Santiment’s data also reported a sharp deterioration in Bitcoin’s network activity compared with 2021 levels, with 42% fewer unique BTC addresses making transactions and 47% fewer new addresses being created. These trends do not mean crypto is “dead” or that a multi-year bear market is inevitable. However, the analytics platform did highlight a clear bearish divergence developed throughout 2025, as total market capitalizations continued to reach new highs even as BTC’s on-chain utility declined.
Whale Accumulation Accelerates
Even as on-chain participation has slowed, accumulation by large BTC holders has accelerated. Bitcoin whale accumulation has increased by more than 200,000 BTC in recent weeks. While whale inflows to exchanges have picked up, a trend often linked to short-term selling, overall whale holdings have continued to rise.
To assess behavior over a longer timeframe, CryptoQuant tracks whale-held supply using monthly averages rather than short-term flows. This metric dropped sharply to nearly minus 7% on December 15 but has since reversed, as whale holdings increased by 3.4% over the past month.
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During this period, the amount of Bitcoin held by whales grew from around 2.9 million BTC to more than 3.1 million BTC. CryptoQuant observed that a similar scale of accumulation last occurred during the April 2025 market correction, when whale buying helped absorb selling pressure and boosted the BTC rally from $76,000 to $126,000. With Bitcoin being 46% below its peak, the current level could be encouraging some large holders to accumulate.
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