What to Know:
-
The whale sold 3,000 BTC ($363.9M) at an average price of $121,291 via HyperLiquid after a 3-week break.
-
Previously, this whale sold 30,000 BTC to buy Ethereum, earning over $37M in profit.
-
With BTC holding above $120K and ETFs seeing $1.2B inflows, eyes are on whether the whale will reenter ETH soon.
A well-known Bitcoin whale has just made a big move, selling 3,000 BTC worth around $363.9 million in the past 9 hours, according to data shared by on-chain tracker Spot On Chain. The sale happened on the HyperLiquid exchange at an average price of $121,291 per Bitcoin.
This activity marks the whale’s first major transaction after taking a three-week break from trading. The move comes right after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high earlier this week, fueling discussions across the crypto community about whether the whale might be preparing for another big play possibly on Ethereum.
A Whale with Billions in Holdings
After the recent sale, the whale still holds about 46,765 BTC, valued at nearly $5.73 billion, across 11 wallets. This isn’t the first time this particular whale has made headlines.
Between August 20 and September 16, the same address had sold over 30,000 BTC (then worth about $3.3 billion) when Bitcoin was trading around $112,000. At that time, the whale reportedly used some of those funds to buy and open long positions on Ethereum, a move that paid off handsomely as ETH prices later rose.
From Bitcoin to Ethereum: A Pattern Emerges
In August, Spot On Chain had reported that the whale took profits from ETH long positions, locking in $37.2 million in gains, before buying 23,575 ETH on the spot market for about $105.8 million.
At that point, the whale still held 40,212 ETH (then worth around $184 million) with an unrealized profit of over $10 million. This shows a clear trend selling Bitcoin near local highs and rotating into Ethereum.
Back then, two major Bitcoin whales together sold over 4,600 BTC (worth $523 million) to open massive long positions in ETH. They had also purchased 82,398 ETH on the spot market, signaling strong confidence in Ethereum’s future.
Why This Sale Matters
The market pays attention to big whale movements because they can change prices in the short term or give hints about what will happen in the future. In this case, the sale makes sense because Bitcoin just hit a new all-time high of about $127,000, which means it’s time to take some profits.
But the whale’s move to USDC suggests that it might be waiting for the right time to get back in, maybe through Ethereum, as it has done before. Big traders often use stablecoins like USDC to quickly move money between exchanges or to get ready for the next opportunity without leaving the crypto world.
Bitcoin Price Action
Despite its bull run, Bitcoin fell 1.89% over the past 24 hours, reflecting the broader market’s volatility after reaching a new all-time high earlier this week. The drop came as traders reacted to growing macro uncertainty and short-term profit-taking. The ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which has delayed key inflation and jobs data, has created uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s next move.
At the same time, a lot of leveraged positions were being closed in the market. In the last 24 hours, more than $635 million in crypto positions were closed, including $114 million in Bitcoin longs. Bitcoin’s open interest went up 6.09% to $1.12 trillion, which means that too much leverage had built up before the correction. When BTC dropped from its peak, a lot of leveraged positions had to close, which made the sell-off even worse.
Despite the pullback Bitcoin ETFs are still seeing strong inflows, with $1.2 billion coming in last week, their fifth week in a row of gains. Even though Bitcoin’s price is still volatile in the short term, this steady demand from institutions shows that people are becoming more confident in it over the long term.
What’s Next
Bitcoin has been rising at an unprecedented rate, thanks to institutional investors and ETFs. But big holders like this whale usually decide what happens next. Selling at record highs doesn’t always mean leaving the market; it can also mean changing your strategy. Because of what the whale has done in the past, a lot of analysts think that another Ethereum accumulation phase could happen soon.
The whale has billions of dollars in Bitcoin and hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins, and it is probably waiting for the next big setup. With HyperLiquid becoming a popular place for big trades and Bitcoin’s fundamentals staying strong, the next few weeks could show if this whale and others like it are getting ready for the next part of the crypto bull market.
Also Read: India’s Central Bank to Pilot Deposit Tokenization Using Its CBDC
