According to Bitcoiner Willy Woo, Bitcoin’s slow price action this cycle may be attributed to its oldest whales, who now require over $110,000 in new capital for every Bitcoin they sell.
“BTC supply is concentrated around OG whales who peaked their holdings in 2011,” Woo stated in a post on X this Sunday. “They purchased their BTC at $10 or less.”
“This disparity in cost basis, along with the supply they possess and their selling rates, significantly impacts how much new capital is needed to elevate prices,” the OG Bitcoiner remarked.
Whale blamed for Bitcoin flash crash to $112K
The cryptocurrency community has pointed to a longtime Bitcoin whale’s shift from BTC to ETH as an explanation for Bitcoin’s $45 billion market cap drop on Sunday.
This whale reportedly exchanged over $2 billion worth of Bitcoin for Ether in the past week, causing a series of sell orders throughout the market.
The flash crash saw Bitcoin (BTC) plummet nearly 2.2% from $114,666 at 7:31 pm UTC to $112,546 in just nine minutes, eventually reaching a low of $112,174 by 8:16 pm UTC, according to CoinGecko data.
Similarly, ETH declined sharply by 4% from $4,937 to $4,738 during the same time period. However, both cryptocurrencies managed to recover approximately half of their losses from the flash crash.
Many on X have identified a crypto whale that began transferring Bitcoin to the decentralized perpetuals platform Hyperliquid on August 16, moving 24,000 BTC (approximately $2.7 billion) across six transactions in the past nine days, according to Blockchain.com data.
Out of this, 18,142 BTC worth $2 billion has already been sold, with nearly all of it converted into 416,598 ETH, as noted by crypto analyst MLM, who suggests that this whale is behind another series of wallet addresses transferring Bitcoin to Hyperliquid for further ETH purchases.
A total of 275,500 ETH, valued at approximately $1.3 billion, has been staked, indicating that the whale’s move toward ETH may be part of a long-term strategy.
Whale’s trading strategy influenced the crash
This whale also longed 135,263 ETH on Hyperliquid, accumulating total exposure of 551,861 ETH — worth over $2.6 billion — positioning the trades to outpace other quick-moving market participants and earning a $185 million profit on the ETH/BTC trade, MLM reported.
The long ETH positions appreciated as traders reacted favorably to the whale’s prior spot acquisitions.
Related: Custodia Bank CEO cautions about TradFi firms facing the first crypto winter
However, as the whale began closing the longs, the market recognized the whale’s trading strategy — leading traders to reverse their positions with an influx of sell orders, MLM highlighted on Telegram.
“He effectively outmaneuvered those trying to follow him.”
More Bitcoin may be sold
Sani, the founder of TimechainIndex.com, also mentioned that the Bitcoin whale still holds 152,874 Bitcoin across various wallet addresses.
These funds originated from the crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) about six years ago and had remained inactive until August 16, Sani noted.
Another whale converted BTC into ETH last week
In the meantime, another Bitcoin whale sold $670 Bitcoin for $76 million to initiate a long position in ETH last Thursday, highlighting the increasing trend of crypto whales trading BTC for ETH.
ETH has surged 220% since hitting a low of $1,471 on April 9, regaining ground compared to Bitcoin and Solana (SOL), which had led the early parts of the current bull cycle.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s long-term security budget problem: Impending crisis or FUD?
