Bitcoin Whale Sells 24,000 BTC Triggering Flash Crash, Still Holds Over $17B Worth BTC

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Sujha Sundararajan

Author

Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha has been recognised as 🟣 Women In Crypto 2024 🟣 by BeInCrypto for her leadership in crypto journalism.

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A massive Bitcoin whale dump over the weekend has sparked major liquidations, dragging BTC to a key support zone near $113K.

A single BTC whale sold 24,000 Bitcoin on Sunday, worth $2.7 billion, catalyzing a $4,000 crash in minutes. However, they still hold 152,874 BTC, valued at more than $17 billion.

According to Sani, a Bitcoin on-chain analyst and founder of the Timechain Index, the entity liquidated their entire 24k BTC balance, sending it to Hyperunite. The coins had remained untouched for 5+ years.

On Sunday alone, a staggering 12,000 BTC was sent to the Hyperunite trading platform and the whale is “still actively selling,” Sani wrote on X.

BTC Slips Below $112.7K Amid Continued Whale Sell-Offs

According to prominent Bitcoiner Willy Woo, the reason BTC has been slow to rise in this cycle is because the supply of BTC is centred around the large whales that peaked their holdings in 2011.

“They bought their BTC at $10 or lower. It takes $110k+ of new capital to absorb each BTC they sell.”

This means that the difference in value, supply, and pace of sales has a significant impact on the amount of new capital needed to drive the price up.

Further, Bitcoin OGs have been swapping BTC for ETH. Crypto analyst MLM pointed out that a whale sold 18.142K BTC worth $2.04 billion, with most of it rotated into Ethereum.

“So far, the 2 entities have bought 416.598K ETH combined ($1.98 billion),” MLM wrote on X. “Out of the 416.598K ETH, 275.5K ETH ($1.3 billion) has been staked.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, another whale sold 670 Bitcoin worth $76 million to open a long position in ETH.

“Once the whale started selling, it triggered a panic cascade, with other traders selling too, amplifying the crash,” WhaleWire CEO Jacob King said on X. “Most of the money is being moved into Ethereum, $2B bought and $1.3B staked.”

Bitcoin Flash Crash – Is There a Chance for BTC to Revive?

Bitcoin dropped 2.12% to $112,692 as of 12:26 a.m. ET on Sunday. The largest crypto fell to a low of around $110,500 per CoinMarketCap data.

The RSI-7 at 40.72 suggests oversold conditions but no reversal signals yet.

However, industry watchers say that the momentum is short-lived and is not a bearish sign. For instance, Aike Capital founder and crypto trader Alex Krüger wrote on X that BTC should be much easier to go up “once short-term momentum clears and price moves above $113,500 – $114,000.”

Another crypto expert, Vijay Boyapati, said that the cycle is “one of the greatest monetization events in history.”

“The price has stalled because a number of whales have hit their magic number and are unloading. This is healthy – their supply is finite and their selling is required for the full monetization of Bitcoin.”