- A long-dormant Bitcoin whale resumed selling after swapping ~$4B in BTC for ETH in late August.
- The wallet deposited 1,176 BTC (>$136M) to Hyperliquid and began offloading.
- ETH/BTC ratio near 0.0401 leaves the swap currently at a paper loss versus BTC.
- BTC faces $116,000 resistance while other old wallets move coins to exchanges.
After weeks of quiet, a long-standing Bitcoin holder has sold again, drawing fresh attention from traders just as BTC tested the $116,000 area for the first time in three weeks.
The move follows last month’s headline-grabbing swap of billions in BTC for ETH; over the weekend, the same whale moved 1,176 BTC (valued above $136 million) into the trading venue Hyperliquid and started offloading, according to on-chain trackers.
Whale offloads BTC again after a $4B switch to ETH
In late August, the whale exchanged 35,991 BTC—worth more than $4 billion at the time—for roughly 886,371 ETH, with the trade executed around 0.0406 BTC per ETH. The large conversion was followed by an approximately two-week pause.
That lull ended on Sunday as wallets linked to the same entity deposited 1,176 BTC (>$136M) to Hyperliquid and began selling, data compiled by Lookonchain shows. The burst of activity comes after the address had sat largely idle for more than eight years.
Since the August rotation, the ETH/BTC pair has stayed subdued—still below 0.05 since mid-2023—and recently hovered near 0.0401. Under current conditions, converting the whale’s ETH stack straight back into BTC would imply a shortfall versus the original Bitcoin position.
By some estimates, that gap is around 460 BTC (near $53 million at recent prices) if the position were unwound back into BTC now—underscoring the risk the whale assumed by shifting heavily into ETH.
Price levels and fresh signs from other long-dormant wallets
Bitcoin is grappling with resistance near $116,000, trading around $115,500 over the last 24 hours with a range that stretched from under $115,000 to approximately $116,182. The level capped a three-week high and remains a focal point for momentum watchers.
Despite the bounce, BTC sits roughly 7% below the mid-August peak above $124,000, a reminder that supply from large holders can weigh during consolidation phases.
Beyond the main whale, other long-quiet addresses are stirring. One wallet with about 445 BTC moved coins for the first time in nearly 13 years, sending a portion to the exchange Kraken—often read as potential preparation for distribution.
Another address holding approximately 479 BTC reactivated after about 12.8 years without activity, adding to the impression that older coins are coming back into circulation as prices hover near multi-week highs.
Separate activity flagged by analytics firms showed a whale shifting 500 BTC and later 250 BTC to Binance on August 27, a pattern traders commonly interpret as gearing up to sell on the open market.
Large transfers like these can raise near-term supply. As analyst commentary has noted, each coin sold by an OG whale can require substantial new capital—on the order of six figures per BTC at current prices—to avoid pushback on the tape, keeping traders attentive to exchange inflows.
The upshot is a market watching whale footprints closely: a veteran holder has resumed selling after a multibillion-dollar pivot into ETH, BTC is testing key resistance, and other dormant addresses are stirring—conditions that can inject volatility if sell pressure collides with thinner demand.
