Bitcoin, ether and XRP large holders appear to have increased their holdings during a period of price weakness.

Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 5 that on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant said the trend could be an accumulation signal tied to the late stage of a bear market.

CryptoQuant said that when whale balances rise during weak price periods, the supply available in the market can shrink and holdings can become more concentrated among large players. It added that even if this pattern has often appeared ahead of past market bottoms, the possibility of further declines remains.

For bitcoin, whale holdings excluding exchanges and mining pools rose to about 3.06 million BTC from 2.87 million BTC in December 2025. Accumulation also accelerated after bitcoin fell below $60,000 in June.

Ether has shown a similar trend. Wallets holding 10,000 ETH to 100,000 ETH reached an all-time high of 19.6 million ETH. Wallets holding more than 100,000 ETH added about 1.8 million ETH since mid-2025.

Whale activity was also seen in the XRP market. While XRP traded between $1 and $1.20, the spot average order size stayed in CryptoQuant's "large whale" range. Cointelegraph reported that the 90-day taker cumulative volume delta was at a neutral level, making it closer to passive absorption of supply than aggressive buying.

Other research firms are also mentioning bottom signals. 10x Research said on Aug. 4 that if bitcoin tops $63,000 on a monthly closing basis, it could confirm a bear-market bottom. K33 said in a July 7 report that bitcoin has often reached a cycle low within weeks after more than half of the circulating supply moved into a loss.