Bitcoin wallets holding any balance declined by approximately 108,700 between October 16 and November 10, according to data published by Santiment on November 10. Funded Bitcoin wallets peaked near 59.99 million on October 16 before falling to 59.88 million. Santiment attributes the decline to small traders losing patience and exiting the market as Bitcoin price slipped below $75,000. The analytics firm frames the wallet shrinkage as potential capitulation behavior, noting that similar retail surrender patterns have historically preceded significant recoveries, though it cautions the metric alone does not confirm a market bottom.
Santiment Reports 108,700 Bitcoin Wallets Emptied Since October 16
On-chain data shows roughly 108,700 funded Bitcoin wallets have gone to a zero balance since October 16. Wallets holding any balance had climbed to 59.99 million on October 16, close to the 60 million mark, before the recent drawdown cut the total to 59.88 million. The figures come from a November 10 analysis published by Santiment, which frames the shrinkage as small traders losing patience and leaving the market.
Santiment argues the trend may matter for the process of forming a bottom, because this kind of retail surrender has historically shown up before some significant recoveries. The mechanism it describes is capitulation: investors who sat on losses for weeks finally close positions or consolidate coins rather than continue to HODL through the drawdown. Bitcoin now trades far below its all-time high, and Santiment is careful not to oversell the signal, noting that a shrinking wallet count alone does not prove the market has bottomed.
There are also mechanical limits to the reading. One person can control many addresses, so wallet counts are not user counts, and moving coins from several wallets into one, or simply emptying an old address, reduces the metric without anyone selling. A single whale tidying up custody arrangements can therefore dent the headline number just as much as a wave of frightened retail exits, which is why the firm treats the decline as a behavioral clue rather than a sell-volume measure.
The pace of the wallet decline has also accelerated. An earlier Santiment reading, dated October 26, counted roughly 30,000 emptied wallets since October 16 and a total near 59.95 million, meaning most of the shrinkage to 59.88 million happened in the two weeks after that snapshot. Against that backdrop, separate cohort data showed wallets holding between 1 and 100 Bitcoin added about 14,207 BTC in balances over a two-week window, a sign that mid-sized holders were accumulating while smaller addresses emptied.
Bitcoin Exchange Reserves Drop to 1.28 Million BTC
A second gauge in the same analysis points in a different direction. Bitcoin held on exchanges has fallen to about 1.28 million coins, which trims the pool of tokens that could be dumped on the market at short notice. The two indicators measure different things: wallet counts track funded addresses, while exchange supply tracks custodial balances, so a fall in reserves says nothing direct about how many people still hold coins. Coins withdrawn to self-custody are not automatically held for the long term either.
Taken together, the two datasets sketch a washout rather than fresh distribution: retail addresses are emptying out, mid-sized balances are growing, and exchange supply is draining at the same time. That mix resembles late-stage selling exhaustion more than the start of a new leg down, though the causal link between wallet shrinkage and price remains unproven.
Bitcoin Price Tests $74,000 Support as Wallet Count Declines
Santiment says that if the wallet count keeps falling while Bitcoin holds the $74,000 to $75,000 zone, that combination would describe a market where fear is rising but sellers can no longer push the price lower, a setup that supports a bottoming case. It adds that reclaiming $78,000 to $80,000 would strengthen the view that sellers are losing force, while losing $74,000 would leave selling pressure in control.
The $74,000 response is the test. A firm hold there while retail leaves would back the capitulation reading. Selling exhaustion elsewhere in the market, where profitable sellers slumped to 12% of tokens from 80% in September, fits the same picture of a market running out of motivated sellers.
FAQ
What caused 108,700 Bitcoin wallets to empty between October 16 and November 10?
Santiment attributes the decline to small traders losing patience and exiting the market as Bitcoin price slipped below $75,000, describing the behavior as potential capitulation where investors close positions or consolidate coins rather than continue holding through the drawdown.
How low did Bitcoin exchange reserves fall according to Santiment?
Bitcoin held on exchanges has fallen to about 1.28 million coins, which reduces the pool of tokens immediately available for sale on the market, according to the November 10 Santiment analysis.
What price level does Santiment identify as critical for Bitcoin?
Santiment says that if Bitcoin holds the $74,000 to $75,000 zone while the wallet count keeps falling, that combination would describe a market where sellers can no longer push the price lower, supporting a bottoming case, while losing $74,000 would leave selling pressure in control.
