3 Altcoins Crypto Whales Are Buying In September 2026
Crypto whales added three altcoins in the first 30 hours of September, a month Bitcoin has closed lower in five of the last eight years.
The market opened it 2.2% below Tuesday’s high, so the buying went against the broader market .
Uniswap (UNI)
Nansen-labelled crypto whale wallets lifted UNI holdings from 3.20 million to 3.46 million on September 2, a 257,777-token increase worth about $1.62 million. The cohort grew from eight wallets to nine, so a new large holder joined.
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The flows around it agree. Fresh wallets took in $2.91 million and exchange balances fell by 351,274 UNI, per Nansen wallet data. UNI is up 9% in 24 hours and 47% on the week, and it returns to this list after whales bought it in July.
Usage backs the move. Uniswap handled $2.69 billion in daily volume and $10.7 million in fees, per DeFiLlama protocol data, and those fees feed the UNI burn mechanism approved last December, so heavier trading removes UNI from circulation.
Two groups hedged instead of following. Derivatives traders cut $854,910 of UNI exposure while staying net long, and the whales themselves were net DEX sellers of $130,256 even as balances grew, which reads as locking in part of the gain.
Orca (ORCA)
Orca is the cleanest contrarian setup of the three. Labelled crypto whale balances rose from 160,325 to 201,097 ORCA, a 25.4% jump, while the token fell 1.3%.
The cohort stayed at 10 wallets, so existing holders did the buying. Exchanges lost $263,753 of ORCA in 24 hours, the second-largest outflow in 30 days, pulling sell-side supply off the market. It seems that retail and whales are unified on this one.
Yet, the weekly picture is weaker. Whale flow over seven days is still negative $417,113, so one strong day has not undone a week of selling.
Pump.fun (PUMP)
PUMP carries the most disagreement. Whale balances rose 62.75 million tokens, worth about $272,000, and fresh wallets added $1.83 million while the price fell 3.5%.
The other side is heavier. Smart traders sold $475,249, top-profit wallets sold $1.80 million, and exchange flow flipped from an $885,645 outflow to a $739,671 inflow inside the same window, and tokens moving onto exchanges are usually about to be sold.
Pump.fun has a huge built-in buyer of its own. The company says it spends half of everything it earns buying PUMP on the open market and destroying it, so those tokens can never be sold again. It burned $997,700 worth in the latest day.
That has shrunk the supply, but it has never stopped the price falling when holders sold faster than the company bought. Whale wallets held 4.745 billion PUMP when September began. If they fall back below that, the sellers have won.
Analyst’s View: This is not an altcoin season. It is a bet on three tokens with a built-in buyer, made in a month Bitcoin usually loses.
A buyback creates one steady buyer, not proof anyone else wants the token. And in all three cases the whale cohort sold on DEXs while its balances rose, so a rising balance means large wallets hold more, not that they bought on the open market.
UNI has the deepest confirmation, ORCA the sharpest divergence, PUMP the loudest counter-argument.