Bitcoin on the Brink: OG Whale Selloff and CPI Data Threaten BTC Price Collapse

Bitcoin's bull run faces its sternest test yet as two seismic forces converge—an OG whale cashing out and ominous CPI numbers looming.

Whale alert triggers panic

The market shudders as a veteran Bitcoin holder—one of the OGs from crypto's wild west days—dumps a nine-figure stack. Liquidations pile up faster than FTX's legal bills.

CPI Sword of Damocles

All eyes turn to tomorrow's inflation data. Another hot print could send risk assets tumbling faster than a crypto influencer's credibility. The Fed's printers stay quiet, and traders sweat.

Technical minefield ahead

Key support levels look as shaky as a shitcoin's whitepaper. If $60K breaks, brace for cascading liquidations—the crypto market's favorite self-inflicted wound.

Silver lining? This might just be the flush-out Bitcoin needs before its next leg up. After all, Wall Street's still waiting with bags of institutional money to deploy—right after they short retail into oblivion.

Key Insights:

• Bitcoin price slips as Satoshi-era whale dumped 40,000 BTC from 80,000 BTC for the first over a decade.
• Economists expect US CPI to come in hotter at 2.7%, prompting the Fed to move away from resuming rate cuts in September.
• Bitcoin price risks crashing if multiple factors act to build further selling pressure on Bitcoin and the broader crypto market.

Crypto market braces for a potential crash in Bitcoin price and altcoins as whales start profit booking, and US CPI estimates signaled rising inflation.

The primary factors for bitcoin price fall were US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Russia and the first selloff by an OG whale holding 80K BTC.

OG Whale 80K BTC Liquidates Bitcoin Holdings

Satoshi-era whale with 80K BTC started dumping its holdings to crypto exchanges for the first time today. According to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, this marks the first time the whale offloaded any BTC after more than a decade.

Initially, the OG whale-linked wallet address “bc1qq8” moved 4.5K BTC worth $536 million to Galaxy Digital in an OTC deal, as per Arkham data.

Besides, the whale also moved 4,000 BTC and 500 BTC to Galaxy Digital in an OTC deal worth nearly $600 million.

Onchain Lens reported that the Satoshi-era whale deposited 9,000 BTC valued at $1.06 billion. Also, the whale again transferred 2,043 BTC, 3,000 BTC, and 2,800 BTC to Galaxy Digital.

Lookonchain said the whale sold 16,843 BTC worth more than $2 billion. Also, Galaxy Digital deposited these BTC to Bybit and Binance crypto exchanges.

Hours later, the wallet was completely liquidated as the whale sent the remaining 3,157 BTC worth $371.15 million to Galaxy Digital. The whale is also selling BTC from other wallets, including “bc1qmu.”

As a result, the whale has sold 40,000 BTC from 80,000 BTC. These BTC were moved earlier on July 4, as reported by The Coin Republic.

Other Whales Selling Bitcoin

Lookonchain reported that other whales also started selling BTC. This triggers a heavy pressure on the bitcoin price and the broader crypto market.

Notably, this comes in response to OG whale liquidating its holdings. Whale “0x960B” closed a long position and flipped short on BTC, sitting at an unrealized profit of $228K.

Glassnode revealed that Bitcoin investors realized $3.5 billion in profits. Among them, long-term holders (LTH) took $1.96 billion in profits while short-term holders took $1.54 billion in profits.

It was one of the largest profit-taking days this year, primarily driven by long-term holders. LTH continued to offload their BTC holdings in the past weeks.

Traders Brace for US CPI

The U.S. Department of Labor to release US CPI inflation data for June today. Economists estimated the CPI inflation to come in higher due to tariffs.

According to Wall Street estimates, the monthly US CPI data is expected to be higher at 0.3% for June, as compared to 0.1% recorded in the prior month. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, the inflation is expected to come in at 2.7%, up from 2.4% recorded last month.

On the other hand, Core CPI, which excludes the food and energy prices, was projected at 0.3%, up from the 0.1% figure of the prior month. Similarly, the Core CPI, on a YoY basis, was also anticipated to increase to 3% in June, as compared to 2.8% in May.

A hot CPI inflation print will reduce the odds of a Fed rate cut in September. At the time of writing, the CME FedWatch Tool showed two Fed rate cuts of 50 bps this year.

Will Bitcoin Price Crash?

The selloff by the Satoshi-era whale and hot CPI print resulted in Bitcoin price slipping below $117K from the recent ATH above $123K. The price was trading at $116,880, with a 24-hour low and high of $116,373 and $123,091, respectively.

CoinGlass data also showed selling in the derivatives market. At the time of writing, the total BTC futures open interest dropped 2% to $86.04 billion in the last 4 hours.

BTC futures OI on CME and Binance slipped more than 2% each. This signals bearish sentiment among derivatives traders.