Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s oldest whales may be to blame for Bitcoin’s slow price action this cycle, according to Bitcoiner Willy Woo, pointing out that it now takes more than $110,000 of fresh capital to absorb every Bitcoin they sell.
“BTC supply is concentrated around OG whales who peaked their holdings in 2011,” Woo <a href="https://x.com/woonomic/status/1959760962812010717" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://x.com/woonomic/status/1959760962812010717">said</a> in an X post on Sunday. “They bought their BTC at $10 or lower.”
“This differential in cost basis, the supply they hold and their rate of selling has profound impacts on how much new capital that needs to come in to lift price,” the OG Bitcoiner said.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-08/0198df48-bd47-7001-9b8b-f4888934b62e" title="" alt="Bitcoin OG whales to blame for BTC’s painful rise: Willy Woo">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/woonomic/status/1959760960090235165" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://x.com/woonomic/status/1959760960090235165">Willy Woo</a>
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<h2 id="br-whale-blamed-for-bitcoin-flash-crash-to-112-000"> Whale blamed for Bitcoin flash crash to $112,000</h2>
It comes as the crypto community pointed to a longtime Bitcoin whale’s rotation out of BTC for Ether (<a href="/ethereum-price" rel="noopener noreferrer">ETH</a>) to explain Bitcoin’s $45 billion market cap plunge on Sunday.
The whale is understood to have rotated more than $2 billion worth of Bitcoin into Ether over the last week, triggering a cascade of sell orders across the market.
The flash crash saw Bitcoin (<a href="/bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer">BTC</a>) fall almost 2.2% from $114,666 at 7:31 pm UTC to $112,546 in nine minutes before bottoming out at $112,174 at 8:16 pm UTC, CoinGecko <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">data</a> shows.&nbsp;
ETH also <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">fell</a> a sharp 4% from $4,937 to $4,738 over the same time frame. Both cryptocurrencies recovered about half of the losses incurred from the flash crash.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-08/0198df48-c248-74f7-9b47-ca1e276a9b7d" title="" alt="Bitcoin OG whales to blame for BTC’s painful rise: Willy Woo">
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 Bitcoin’s change in price over the last 24 hours. Source: <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin">CoinGecko</a> 
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Many on X have pointed to a crypto whale that began transferring Bitcoin to the decentralized crypto perpetuals platform Hyperliquid on Aug. 16, sending 24,000 BTC ($2.7 billion) across six transfers over the last nine days, Blockchain.com <a href="https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/19D5J8c59P2bAkWKvxSYw8scD3KUNWoZ1C" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">data</a> shows.
Of that, 18,142 BTC worth $2 billion has already been sold, with almost all of it being rotated into 416,598 ETH, <a href="https://x.com/mlmabc/status/1959711909931827276" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">according</a> to crypto analyst MLM, who said the whale is behind another set of wallet addresses moving Bitcoin to Hyperliquid for additional ETH purchases.
A total of 275,500 ETH, worth around $1.3 billion, has been staked, suggesting the whale’s pivot to ETH may be part of a long-term strategy.
<h2 id="whale-s-profitable-trading-strategy-contributed-to-the-crash">Whale’s profitable trading strategy contributed to the crash</h2>
The whale also longed 135,263 ETH <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-is-hyperliquid-hlp-and-how-does-it-work" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">on Hyperliquid</a> for a total exposure of 551,861 ETH — worth over $2.6 billion — strategically positioning the trades to frontrun other fast-moving market participants and <a href="https://x.com/mlmabc/status/1959734324082659423" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">netting</a> a $185 million profit on the ETH/BTC trade, MLM said.
Those long ETH positions increased in value as traders reacted positively to the whale’s earlier <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-is-spot-trading-in-crypto-and-how-does-it-work" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">spot purchases.&nbsp;</a>
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/custodia-ceo-warns-tradfi-firms-first-crypto-winter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Custodia Bank CEO warns of TradFi firms facing first crypto winter</a>
Then, as the whale started closing the longs, the market realized the whale’s <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/how-hedge-funds-are-making-major-moves-in-the-crypto-market" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">trading strategy</a>, prompting traders to reverse their positions with a cascade of sell orders, MLM <a href="https://t.me/mlmonchain/552?comment=10404" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">noted</a> on Telegram.
“He effectively frontran the people who were trying to frontrun him.” 
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-08/0198df48-c727-72b6-8a00-1ea19a7fb911" title="" alt="Bitcoin OG whales to blame for BTC’s painful rise: Willy Woo">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/JacobKinge/status/1959725787201909195" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://x.com/JacobKinge/status/1959725787201909195">Jacob King&nbsp;</a>
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<h2 id="more-bitcoin-could-be-offloaded">More Bitcoin could be offloaded</h2>
The founder of TimechainIndex.com, known as Sani on X, also <a href="https://x.com/SaniExp/status/1959729580203475070" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">noted</a> that the Bitcoin whale still holds 152,874 Bitcoin across several other wallet addresses.
The funds originally came from <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-role-of-stablecoins-and-rwas-in-defi-htx-ventures-report" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crypto exchange HTX</a> (formerly Huobi) about six years ago and had remained inactive until Aug. 16, Sani added.
<h2 id="another-whale-converted-btc-into-eth-last-week">Another whale converted BTC into ETH last week</h2>
Meanwhile, another Bitcoin whale sold 670 Bitcoin worth $76 million to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-whale-dumps-btc-for-295m-eth-long-position" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">open a long position in ETH</a> last Thursday, reflecting the increasing trend of crypto whales selling BTC for ETH.
ETH is up 220% since bottoming out at $1,471 on April 9, making up lost ground on the likes of Bitcoin and Solana (<a href="/solana-price-index" rel="noopener noreferrer">SOL</a>), which led the early stages of the current bull cycle.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/bitcoins-long-term-security-budget-problem-impending-crisis-or-fud/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin’s long-term security budget problem: Impending crisis or FUD?</a>

Bitcoin OG whales to blame for BTC’s painful rise: Willy Woo

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