Bitcoin (BTC) lost 20% in one day in part thanks to the actions of a single whale, new research suggests.
Data On February 23, chain analytics firm Santiment showed that BTC / USD fell to $ 47,400 after Bitcoin’s second largest transaction in 2021.
Ghost of Bitcoin sells past returns
The transaction, 2,700 BTC valued at $ 156.6 million at $ 58,000 per token, resulted in a sale that put pressure on the market, with this snowball becoming the largest one-hour candle in the history of Bitcoin.
“As we noted yesterday, there was an 11x FX surge that initiated the correction in the price of # Bitcoin from its #ATH of $ 58.3k,” Santiment wrote in comments. support on Twitter.
“A closer look at the data revealed that one address was responsible for the second largest $ BTC transaction of the year, an import of 2,700 tokens into the wallet before a quick sell-off.”
The results shed light on what exactly was happening when volatility took over for Bitcoin, which managed to recover to $ 54,000 before trading back below $ 50,000 at the time of writing.
Some believe the market has been over-exploited, with opponents in particular claiming that a bubble-like process has been underway for a long time. Others argued that it was simply “business as usual” for crypto trading, but as TBEN reported, concerns have arisen over unusual inflows to the exchanges.
Santiment noted that the same address also sold out just before the price drop between assets in March 2020. At the time, Bitcoin had lost almost 60% of its value and hit $ 3,600.
“That same address also made a $ 2,000 BTC import last March just as the Black Thursday correction took place,” he revealed.
“In total, it made 73 transactions in its one-year existence, for a total of $ 91,935 BTC imported, with all tokens moving within minutes of arriving.”
Whales in the spotlight
Suspicion has long loomed over the whales, which had profited from the sale of small wallets during previous price drops throughout Bitcoin’s recent bull run. As TBEN reported, the number of whale-sized wallets had increased, while smallholders decreased.
“The most interesting side-by-side tells you how the profile of Bitcoin investors is progressing – the ‘whales’ have declined as the price has risen in the last cycle; a new group of whales keep appearing this time around, while the prawns are the weak hands that sold out too soon ”, Dovey Wan, founding partner of Primitive tweeted last week with a chart comparing the bull runs of 2017 and 2021.
“THE GREAT TRANSFER OF WEALTH,” she added.
Some answers to research in the meantime Noted that the portfolio in question was responsible for a fraction of the total volume of transactions and that its influence should therefore be limited.
“We don’t think a single address triggers the price retracement of the world’s largest crypto asset, so we certainly wouldn’t want you to believe it either,” Santiment replied.
“Was this skill activity a contributing factor, however? Yes.”
