Whale Feeding Frenzy: Altcoin Accumulation Surges in January 2026 Amid Market Rebound

During the second week of January 2026 (January 8–14), Bitcoin whale investors were heavily accumulating select altcoins, indicating confidence in an eventual market recovery. Ethereum had the largest percentage of accumulation, with whales purchasing approximately 320k ETH in early January, which was a strong bullish indicator, as the average year-to-date decline of the altcoin sector was approximately 42%. This accumulation trend mirrors what happened in the last week of December and the first week of January, when large investors were aggressively accumulating assets in infrastructure and staking-related projects in spite of the price volatility at the time.

Chainlink (LINK) had the most consistent accumulation activity from Bitcoin whales in the past 30 days with a 57.79% increase in holdings (around 680,000 LINK valued at around $8.5 million) as they appeared to be betting on an increase in Oracle Network Demand while other smart money investors were selling some of their LINK inventories. Lido DAO (LDO) had a significant increase of 30.34% over the last seven days, with whales adding approximately 4.07M LDO valued at around $2.28 million from high-profile buyers, including the aforementioned 1.85M that Arthur Hayes purchased, based on excitement about the resurgence of liquid staking. Additionally, some lesser-known asteroids and minor cryptocurrencies, such as Aster (ASTER), received large new 24-hour inflows and increased whale holdings to 19.23M ASTER (with an increase of around $320,000) in spite of a 30% decrease in the last 30 days, indicating a reversal of the previous pessimism surrounding them.

The whale activity mentioned above coincides and is in line with what is happening in the market as a whole, such as '' Bitcoin whales having accumulated 56,227 BTC from late December 2024.