🚨 Bitcoin Stumbles as Dormant Whale Awakens – 16,843 BTC Suddenly on the Move

A seismic shift rattles Bitcoin markets as a long-dormant whale resurfaces, dumping 16,843 BTC onto exchanges. Was this a calculated exit or just another billionaire playing hot potato with retail investors' portfolios?

The Wake-Up Call Nobody Wanted

Blockchain sleuths spotted the ancient wallet – inactive since the 2018 crypto winter – suddenly liquidating its entire position. The move sent immediate ripples through derivatives markets, with open interest plunging 12% as leveraged traders scrambled.

Market Impact: More Than Just a Splash

Liquidity providers got caught flat-footed as the sell orders hit. Order books thinned faster than a DeFi project's tokenomics paper, causing 3% price slippage within minutes. Meanwhile, crypto Twitter erupted with theories – from institutional accumulation to government seizure.

As always in crypto, the 'smart money' moves first while retail watches the charts. Maybe those 'HODL' memes should come with a footnote: *Terms and conditions apply when whales cash out.

Whale awakens after 14 years

An OG Bitcoin whale that had remained inactive for over 14 years transferred 16,843 BTC (approx. worth $2 billion) to Galaxy Digital across several transactions. The transfers to Galaxy Digital were made in seven separate transactions, beginning on Monday. Different batch sizes ranging from 500 to 4,500 BTC were moved. The final tranche of 3,160 BTC was sent out on Tuesday.

This looks to be the first cash-out in the whale wallet’s BTC history. Some analysts initially suggested these movements might be linked to address management or security upgrades. Meanwhile, the latest transfers to Galaxy Digital indicate that the whale may now be preparing to sell.

This bitcoin OG with 80,009 $BTC($9.46B) transferred another 7,843 $BTC($927M) to #GalaxyDigital, for a total of 16,843 $BTC ($2B).

Galaxy Digital is depositing $BTC to exchanges, and 2,000 $BTC($236M) has been directly deposited to #Bybit and #Binance.https://t.co/Sm9UBYboIN pic.twitter.com/rwxHtrV0DQ

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 15, 2025

The whale’s decision to cash out into Galaxy Digital may not necessarily signal a bearish move. Instead, it reflects well-planned portfolio rebalancing after Bitcoin’s more than 100% year-to-date rally. On the other side, institutional inflows continue to outpace miner issuance. 

On Monday alone, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $297 million in net inflows. The cumulative net inflow now stands at $52.66 billion. BlackRock’s IBIT led the inflow run with $394 million while ARK’s ARKB lost $99.5 million in withdrawals.

Lookonchain reported that after seeing the Bitcoin OG whale start selling, another whale 0x960B instantly closed his long position and flipped short on BTC. CoinGlass data shows that around $160 million worth of long and short bets set on Bitcoin price have been liquidated over the last 24 hours. $144 million (90%) of the liquidated positions turn out to be long bets.

Crypto week begins with a pullback

Bitcoin briefly touched a record $123,000 over growing expectations that the US House of Representatives will pass key crypto legislation this week. However, Republicans are calling it the “Crypto Week.” These bills are seen as a gateway to long-awaited regulatory clarity.

As of now, BTC is hovering between $116K-$117K with a 24-hour trading volume of $147 billion. The global digital asset market cap saw a decline of more than 4% over the last day to stand at $3.66 trillion. The biggest altcoins like Ethereum, solana and XRP are also bleeding.

The meme crypto category looks to be most affected in the fresh pullback. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu prices dropped by 8% and 6%, respectively, over the last 24 hours. The cumulative meme crypto market cap is down by 6% to stand at $64.5 billion.

Trump’s meme coin has struggled to maintain momentum despite celebrity backers and investor buzz. The coin, which soared to $75 shortly after its debut, slipped 6% to trade around $9.12. Last week saw crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun revealed a fresh $100 million investment into the TRUMP coin project. Still, investor sentiment appears to be cooling off as speculative assets take a backseat to blue-chip cryptos.

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