Bitcoin (BTC) may have dropped $9,000 final week due to a single whale, a brand new idea suggests.
In a put up on X (previously Twitter) on Jan. 18, James Van Straten, analysis and knowledge analyst at crypto insights agency CryptoSlate, drew consideration to an enormous entity promoting BTC.
One Bitcoin whale, $100 million revenue?
Bitcoin’s 15% dive from $49,000 highs, which started on Jan. 11, is broadly attributed to a “promote the information” occasion as a part of america approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
For Van Straten, nonetheless, there’s a new contender on the radar.
Analyzing the realized value of the BTC provide — the worth at which cash final moved — a conspicuous lower on the highs stands out.
His analysis implicated an unknown entity within the proceedings. This investor bought a large hoard of 100,000 BTC throughout Bitcoin’s run to all-time highs in 2021, price $4.8 billion on the time.
Final week, having held the place by the following BTC value drawdown, the whale lastly broke even — and the possibility to promote at $49,000 was too good to go up.
“That is why (in my view) on Jan. 12, Bitcoin had its largest 1-day drawdown for the reason that FTX collapse and tanked after the ETF began buying and selling,” Van Straten wrote alongside knowledge from on-chain analytics agency Glassnode.
Even with simply $1,000 between the entry and exit, the dimensions of the whale’s BTC stack would have netted them a cool $100 million revenue — nonetheless a worthy prize regardless of enduring Bitcoin’s longest-ever bear market.
“I assumed they might have held resulting from holding a 75% unrealized loss,” Van Straten continued.
“Then that despatched the market right into a frenzy, mixed with liquidations, ‘promote the information,’ and file loss-taking.”
Main BTC gross sales is probably not over
As Cointelegraph reported, the post-ETF comedown quickly sparked mass liquidations amongst merchants, risking a vicious circle of losses from which BTC/USD has but to get well considerably.
Associated: BTC value slips to $42.4K as JPMorgan CEO says Bitcoin ‘does nothing’
The affect of institutional entry to Bitcoin has nonetheless to make its presence felt on the markets by way of constricting provide and related value will increase.
Such was the dimensions of the potential whale sell-off, in the meantime, that it vied with ETF exercise itself, together with rotation out of the Grayscale Bitcoin Belief (GBTC).
“For context, $GBTC has solely offered 27k Bitcoin with comparable demand for inflows into the ETFs. That is not sufficient IMO. I don’t assume FTX has liquidated its gbtc place but, both,” Van Straten concluded, hinting at potential additional sell-side stress to come back.
This text doesn’t comprise funding recommendation or suggestions. Each funding and buying and selling transfer entails danger, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a choice.
