Suspected “big player” sells out, selling over $1 billion worth of BTC in two weeks

U.S. stocks were closed on Wednesday due to the Juneteenth holiday, but the crypto market continued to trade, with Bitcoin trading sideways and altcoins recovering.

According to Bitpush data, BTC rebounded to $65,700 before the early trading session, but the bullish momentum failed to continue and fell to around $64,678 around midday Eastern Time. As of press time, the latest trading price of Bitcoin was $65,049.6, with a 24-hour volatility of less than 1%.

Altcoins benefited from positive news related to regulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with most of the top 100 altcoins by market cap seeing gains.

Consensys previously announced that the U.S. SEC had notified the company that the agency would end its investigation into ETH 2.0, calling it a "major victory" for the industry.

In the past 24 hours, Fetch.AI (FET) led the gains, up 21.11%, followed by Akash Network (AKT), up 19.98%, and SingularityNET (AGIX), up 19.93%. JasmyCoin (JASMY) led the losses, down 4.46%, followed by Toncoin (TON), down 1.52%, and Monero (XMR), down 1.15%.

The current overall market value of cryptocurrencies is $2.36 trillion, with Bitcoin accounting for 54% of the market share.

Whales Sold Over $1 Billion in BTC in the Last Two Weeks

On-chain analysis firm CryptoQuant said in a report on Wednesday that whale addresses have sold more than $1.2 billion worth of BTC in the past two weeks, and they are likely sold through brokers rather than on the open market. The report believes that long-term Bitcoin holders and miners are among the largest sellers of the asset in the past two weeks.

"Traders are still not increasing their holdings of Bitcoin, and demand growth from large players (whales) remains lacking momentum. Stablecoin liquidity continues to slow, with growth rates hitting their lowest level since November 2023," the analysts wrote.

Market observers say miners may be increasingly turning their attention to the recently popular artificial intelligence (AI) field rather than Bitcoin, leading them to sell Bitcoin rewards rather than hold them.

Lucy Hu, senior analyst at crypto fund Metalpha, shared in a Telegram message: “One of the biggest trends since the Bitcoin halving this year is that miners are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence businesses. The decline in mining rewards has prompted miners to seek other channels to increase their income. Due to the demand for energy-intensive data centers by AI companies, Bitcoin miners are gradually generating revenue from sales to AI companies.”

Data shows that the selling by large investors coincides with the net outflow of U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs during the same period. Since June 5, the price of Bitcoin has fallen from $71,000 to $65,000 due to a stronger dollar, investors fleeing riskier assets, and rising traditional stock indexes. Meanwhile, U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of more than $600 million last week, the worst performance since late April.

Bernstein reiterates $200,000 target by end of 2025

Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra wrote in a report that a Bitcoin ETF would receive “approval” from major securities firms and large private banking platforms, and reiterated their goal of BTC rising to $200,000 by the end of 2025.

Analysts agree that recent 13F filings show that institutional participation in spot Bitcoin ETFs is only 22%, while the increase in liquidity of CME Bitcoin futures contracts after the ETF launch is evidence of underlying trading.

Analysts claim that institutional basis trading is a “Trojan Horse” for BTC adoption, and these investors are now evaluating “net long” positions as they feel comfortable with increased ETF liquidity.

Although the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF has now seen four consecutive days of net outflows totaling $714.4 million, with another $154.4 million flowing out of the fund on Tuesday , Bernstein analysts expect net inflows to accelerate again.

The report stated: "We expect Bitcoin ETF inflows to accelerate again in Q3/Q4. The current volatile market is providing new buying points for institutions. $60,000/or $50,000 (if it can reach this level) should be an entry point worth paying attention to, after which institutional demand will usher in the next round of recovery."