Who’s Dumping Bitcoin at All-Time Highs Over $120K? Smart Money or Paper Hands?

Bitcoin just smashed through $120,000—and someone's hitting the sell button hard. Who's cashing out at the peak? Early whales locking in generational wealth? Or retail traders getting spooked by volatility (again)?

The usual suspects: Miners covering operational costs, OGs diversifying after 10,000% gains, and hedge funds rebalancing portfolios before quarterly reports. Meanwhile, crypto Twitter screams 'HODL' while quietly checking sell orders.

Remember: Every ATH sell-off creates two groups—those who bought Lambos, and those who bought the 'dip' at $119K. Wall Street's already shorting the ETF they just launched.

What next?

The path of least resistance remains upside, thanks to signs of strong dip-demand and macroeconomic tailwinds.

"1.88 million addresses bought 1.3 million BTC at an average of $118,000, indicating a strong LAYER of demand that has so far prevented a deeper pullback," Halm told CoinDesk.

Speaking of macro, the market is increasingly getting comfortable with the idea that the new normal inflation in the post-COVID world is well above the Fed's 2% target and expects the central bank to cut rates in September.

Steve Gregory, founder of Vtrader, expects renewed rotation of funds into bitcoin from ether.

"We may see a rotation back to bitcoin and a break of the $120,000 level as bitcoin's 3-month volatility hit its lowest since September 2023. Furthermore, 95% of ETH wallets are now in profit, indicating that traders may make a logical rotation back to BTC," Gregory said.