Bitcoin Traders Cashed Out $500M/Hour in Frenzied Selling Sprees
Whale-sized sell-offs triggered a $500M-per-hour profit-taking bonanza—just another day in crypto’s volatility casino.
When the music stops: Traders scrambled to lock in gains as Bitcoin’s price wobbled, proving once again that ’buy low, sell high’ works until everyone tries doing it simultaneously.
Wall Street bankers watching from their leather chairs probably spilled their lattes—nothing moves that fast in traditional markets unless someone’s hiding losses.
BTC reserves FLOW out rapidly from spot exchanges, reaching the lowest levels since 2022. Despite profit-taking, the sellers are matched with significant demand from spot buyers. | Source: Cryptoquant
Spot exchanges carry 1.023M BTC, the lowest reserves since 2022. The remaining 1.30M are on derivative exchanges, with a steep slide in the past month. As with previous local peaks, BTC traders have shown more rational behavior, aiming to lock in gains. At the same time, spot BTC accumulation continues, driven by the recent trend of growing corporate treasuries.
BTC still gets a boost from derivative traders
The recent trader behavior follows a pullback of the fear and greed index, down to 64 points from 74 points the previous week. Realizing profits is not unusual even for whale wallets, and selling originated even from the ETF wallets of BlackRock.
Despite the selling, BTC still had the energy to rally as high as $106,559. BTC remains range-bound, with potential for volatility in either direction.
The recent profit-taking also shows the market remains relatively resilient, and derivative trading continues independent of spot market activities.
BTC’s open interest on derivative markets increased by $1.2B in the past day, rising again toward $34B after a series of liquidations. In the past few hours, the trend has been toward shorting the asset, though long positions still dominate over 53% of open interest. An accumulation of short positions may also lead to a rally to liquidate the short sellers.
The BTC derivative market is also closely watched for volatility, based on the position of risky trader James Wynn. His position, with a liquidation price of $104,980, is at risk for even a small downward move, especially driven by organized selling.
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