BTC holds $80,000 as ETFs buy record 24,869 BTC and whales sell OTC

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading rangebound around $78,000–$82,000 despite heavy institutional demand. A strategy firm bought 24,869 BTC at an average of $80,985 in the past week and now holds 843,738 BTC (~$63.8B). Spot Bitcoin ETFs also collected nearly 19,000 BTC over nine days in April; BlackRock’s IBIT has attracted over $66B in inflows since launch, including a $630M single-day inflow on May 1 and $1.1B across the first two days of May. Yet price has not broken out because “old whale” wallets are selling while ETF buyers absorb supply. Analytics from Alphractal shows retail posted net buys on 14 of the last 21 trading days, while whale wallets were net sellers. These transfers are largely conducted as over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, which can soften the visible impact on exchange order books. Whale Alert data cited in the article says 72% of coins leaving wallets inactive for more than seven years were transferred via OTC in 2026. Since the halving, 38,400 BTC have been moved from 47 wallets untouched for over five years—said to roughly match ETF demand over a three-month span. The implication for traders: BTC may remain volatile but contained until the stream of whale wallet OTC selling fades. On-chain signals like Liveliness, Coin Days Destroyed, and Days at Profit are expected to track the eventual shift in supply-demand balance.