According to Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo, the earliest giant whales of Bitcoin may be the culprits behind the slow price action of BTC in this cycle. He pointed out that it now requires over $110,000 in new funds to absorb each Bitcoin they sell.
"Woo stated in a post on the X platform on Sunday, 'BTC supply is concentrated in the hands of OG whales who peaked their holdings in 2011.' 'They bought BTC at $10 or lower.'"
This OG Bitcoin believer mentioned, "The difference in cost basis, the amount they hold, and the speed at which they sell have a profound impact on the new influx of funds required to push prices higher."
Previously, the cryptocurrency community attributed the $45 billion market cap drop of Bitcoin on Sunday to a long-term Bitcoin whale rotating into Ethereum (ETH).
It is understood that this whale rotated over $2 billion worth of Bitcoin into Ethereum over the past week, triggering a chain of sell orders in the market.
According to CoinGecko, during the flash crash, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped nearly 2.2% from $114,666 at 7:31 PM UTC to $112,546 within 9 minutes, then hit a low of $112,174 at 8:16 PM.
ETH also saw a significant drop of 4% during the same period, falling from $4,937 to $4,738. Both cryptocurrencies recovered about half of the losses caused by the flash crash.
Many on the X platform pointed to a cryptocurrency whale that began transferring Bitcoin to the decentralized cryptocurrency perpetual platform Hyperliquid starting August 16. Blockchain.com data shows that 24,000 BTC (worth $2.7 billion) were sent through 6 transfers over the past 9 days.
According to cryptocurrency analyst MLM, of these, 18,142 BTC worth $2 billion have been sold, almost entirely rotated into 416,598 ETH. MLM stated that the whale also controls another set of wallet addresses, transferring Bitcoin to Hyperliquid for additional ETH purchases.
A total of 275,500 ETH worth about $1.3 billion has been staked, indicating that the whale's shift to ETH may be part of a long-term strategy.
MLM noted that the whale is also long on 135,263 ETH on Hyperliquid, with a total exposure of 551,861 ETH—worth over $2.6 billion—strategically positioning trades to outpace other fast-moving market participants, netting a profit of $185 million in ETH/BTC trades.
As traders reacted positively to the whale's early spot purchases, the value of these ETH long positions increased.
Then, when the whale began to close its longs, the market became aware of the whale's trading strategy, prompting traders to reverse positions through a chain of sell orders, MLM pointed out on Telegram.
"He effectively outpaced those trying to outpace him."
Sani, a user on the X platform and founder of TimechainIndex.com, also noted that this Bitcoin whale still holds 152,874 Bitcoins across several other wallet addresses.
Sani added that these funds originally came from the cryptocurrency exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) about 6 years ago and had remained inactive until before August 16.
Meanwhile, another Bitcoin whale sold 670 Bitcoins worth $76 million last Thursday to open long positions in ETH, reflecting the growing trend of cryptocurrency whales selling BTC in exchange for ETH.
ETH has risen 220% since hitting a low of $1,471 on April 9, catching up with leading coins like Bitcoin and Solana (SOL) in the early stages of the current bull market.
Related: Historical data shows that Ethereum (ETH) gains in August may lead to a downtrend in September.
Original article: “Willy Woo: Early Whales are the Culprits of Bitcoin (BTC) 'Painful Rise'”
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