Dormant Bitcoin Whale and Top Miner Move to Sell 9K BTC

Bitcoin faces intense selling pressure as a large investor moves 8K BTC to multiple addresses, including exchanges, at a time when the asset saw its largest OTC selling volume since March.  

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted heavily this week, crashing below $67,000 yesterday. Interestingly, Bitcoin has embarked on a major recovery today as its price has spiked 3.26% over the past 24 hours to $69,440. 

Despite Bitcoin’s remarkable gain in the daily charts, many investors have been cautious as they expect it to resume its bearish performance. This belief stems from the potential selling pressure facing Bitcoin this week. 

Bitcoin Faces Potential Selling Pressure 

CryptoQuant CEO and founder Ki Young Ju disclosed that Marathon Digital, the largest daily Bitcoin mining company, sold a whopping 1K BTC ($69.4M) yesterday. Young Ju speculated that Marathon sold the asset to cover its operational expenses. 

According to him, the transaction marks the largest over-the-counter (OTC) miner-related selling volume in a single day since late March, when a mining company sold 1.2K BTC. 

Marathon Digital, the largest #Bitcoin mining company, sold 1K $BTC yesterday, likely to cover expenses, marking the highest daily OTC volume since late March.

h/t @jjcmoreno pic.twitter.com/jM2C2TN8sN

— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) June 11, 2024

5.5 Years Dormant Address Awakens, Moves 8K BTC

Another reason why Bitcoin faces intense selling pressure is the movement of 8K BTC from an address that has been dormant for 5.5 years. Prominent crypto-focused Chinese reporter Colin Wu, citing data from Arkham Intelligence, revealed that the wallet transferred the 8K BTC to multiple addresses yesterday at 21:37 (UTC+8). 

Wu noted that the large investor transferred some funds to four Binance addresses, totaling 1.416K BTC. The previously dormant Bitcoin addresses also moved some assets to other exchanges, including KuCoin, Bybit, and Gate.io. 

Notably, the movement of funds from external addresses to exchanges typically signals the intention to sell. Unlike transactions relating to external wallets, blockchain data does not reveal what happens to these funds after they are sent to exchanges. 

Furthermore, the unknown user also moved a total of 150 BTC to Wintermute, an algorithmic trading firm. Other transactions indexed by Wu include the transfer of three sums of 882 BTC to three unknown addresses. 

150 BTC was transferred to a suspected Wintermute. The rest was transferred to a large number of unmarked addresses, such as 882 BTC transferred to 17M9xc…aoJ9UV; 882 BTC transferred to 1MECjB…9cdCyk; 882 BTC transferred to 18b2nb…Ghq3cW, etc.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 11, 2024

The movement of the previously dormant 8K BTC and Marathon Digital’s sale of 1K BTC could mount selling pressure on Bitcoin as investors may move to shield themselves from the bearish impact of these developments. 

Nonetheless, Bitcoin is currently trading in green, with its price up 3.26% in the past day to $69,440.