Weekly On-Chain Report (July 28 – Aug 3): Whales Bought $4.4 Billion in BTC and ETH as Retail Panicked

While Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) saw a technical pullback in prices last week, a look behind the scenes at on-chain data shows that institutional and whale investors were doing the exact opposite: buying the dip in massive quantities.

The week of July 28 to August 3 saw BTC fall below $112,000 and ETH dip under $3,400, leading to a significant cooling of trading activity across spot and derivatives markets. However, the this was a period of quiet and heavy accumulation by some of the market’s biggest players.

Following a surge to an all-time high of $123,400 on July 14, Bitcoin entered a corrective phase, retreating by approximately 7% to the $114,000 range.

Analysts like “oinonen_t” the decline to a combination of macroeconomic uncertainty, including inflation concerns and new tariff policies, and bearish technical signals, including cascading liquidations.

Ethereum followed suit, with a notable price dip paired with lower trading volume across decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Lookonchain reported that total DEX spot volume for the week dropped 21.6% to $95.3 billion, with top platforms like PancakeSwap and Raydium seeing double-digit declines.

DEX perpetuals trading also dipped 7.7% to $121.1 billion, led by a 13% week-over-week drop on Hyperliquid.

Still, the market may only be experiencing a pause before entering its next phase of price discovery, a natural part of the bullish cycle according to “oinonen_t,” who believes that BTC will touch $200K by the end of the year.

Lookonchain revealed that 16 publicly listed companies, including Strategy (former MicroStrategy), purchased 31,478 BTC last week, totaling $3.61 billion. Strategy alone added 21,021 BTC worth $2.46 billion, continuing its aggressive accumulation strategy.

On the Ethereum side, 12 new wallets scooped up 225,099 ETH valued at $819 million during the same period. The most significant buyer, SharpLink Gaming, purchased 60,694 ETH ($221M) and now holds close to half a million ETH ($1.81B) in total.

This “smart money” buying happened against a backdrop of other strong underlying metrics. The total stablecoin market cap rose by $1.99 billion, with a notable $662 million increase in USDT and USDC holdings on Arbitrum.

Binance, meanwhile, saw a record $2.55 trillion in futures trading volume for July, its highest since January 2025, highlighting growing interest in derivatives amid the volatile price swings.

With over $6 billion in crypto purchases and stablecoin inflows rising, analysts believe the market is setting the stage for a potential Q4 rally and continued price discovery.