The bottoming out phase is the time for smart money to accumulate bitcoin. So far we are 4 months into this market cycle's bottom.
Surely whales out there must be accumulating massive amounts of bitcoin from the traders and the people dumb enough to sell now. Do you think that the bottom of the market cycle basically just moves a bunch of bitcoin into whales hands? Whereas the mania phase at the end of a bull run is when those whales redistribute their bottom-bought bitcoin to the hungry masses buying about-to-crash bitcoin?
It's an interesting theory, but at the same time, very likely.
The smart money is flowing into bitcoin right now in my opinion, which is a reason why you see a lot of the big name corporations that have started to enter the crypto space during the bear market. They see potential, and a great entry point, which is honestly the most rational thing to do.
The mainstream investors on the other hand tend to be affected a lot by emotions and what mainstream media tells them. That leads to panic dumping. As a result, I do see that it's very likely institutions and the so called "whales" are buying on average, more than what individuals are buying right now, because they recognise what the market patterns are.