Bitcoin whales on the move: Big liquidations trigger volatility

Bitcoin retraced back to $108,900, 0.6% down in the last 24 hours, after a crypto whale withdrew over $130.68 million worth of the crypto from Binance. According to Coinglass data, BTC’s price movements cut over $26 million from long traders and $19 million from short positions intraday.

At around 6 AM UTC on Wednesday, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain identified a transaction involving the withdrawal of 1,200 BTC, valued at over $130 million, from Binance. 

Market analysts suggest this move could signal expectations of a deeper correction, as the large holder may be positioning for further accumulation at lower price levels.

Crypto long trader’s $626M position backfires

Lookonchain also featured trader James Wynn, known on social media platform X as @JamesWynnReal, who took a massive long position worth $626 million on Tuesday, with a liquidation price set at $108,010. 

When Bitcoin dipped below $108,500 at around 3 AM, the position came under immediate pressure. Wynn was forced to trim his position by depositing over $10 million in USDC and cutting his long position, incurring an initial loss of approximately $4.75 million.

Over the course of the day, Wynn’s total losses from long trimming amounted to roughly $14.3 million. Bitcoin rebounded shortly after the sell-off, returning to values north of $109,000.

Is the Whale Hunt Underway?$BTC just dropped 1.2%, and top trader @JamesWynnReal reacted fast — depositing 10.88M $USDC into Hyperliquid in the past hour and cutting part of his $PEPE long at a loss to avoid liquidation on his $BTC position.

Current position: 6,680… pic.twitter.com/2MXNsNMpTP

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 26, 2025

Undeterred by his earlier loss, Wynn appeared to reposition for another push. Lookonchain tracked his activity as he deposited the remaining 203.73 billion $PEPE, valued at around $2.82 million, to Binance. Later, reports indicated that he sold a larger portion, totaling 240 billion $PEPE for $3.32 million, likely to fund an additional long position in Bitcoin.

Wynn is seemingly struggling with market timing. However, another trader identified only by the address 0x2258 has reportedly been mirroring Wynn’s trades but in reverse. When Wynn goes long, 0x2258 goes short, and vice versa. Over just three days, this contrarian approach has netted him a profit of $5.6 million.

On May 24, while Wynn went long on Bitcoin, 0x2258 opened short positions on both BTC and ETH. By May 25, as Wynn closed his longs, 0x2258 exited his shorts, pocketing $1.36 million in profits. When Wynn flipped to a short position later that day, 0x2258 went long again and exited the next day for a further $2.54 million in gains.

When Wynn returned to a long position on May 26, 0x2258 flipped back to shorts. At press time, those short positions show an unrealized gain of $1.7 million.

In another development, two newly created wallets were observed withdrawing a combined 4,838 ETH, worth about $13 million, from Kraken early Wednesday. The motive behind the move is not yet clear, but market watchers believe whales are accumulating coins, optimistic of a market price rise in the coming days.

Whale numbers on the rise after old coins move

According to Glassnode data, spending by long-dormant Bitcoin holders is on the rise. Total aggregate volume from the 1 to 5-year holding cohorts has reached $4.02 billion, the highest since February. 

Spending by older $BTC holders is heating up again. Aggregate volume from the 1y–5y cohorts just hit $4.02B – the highest since February.
Older coins are on the move 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/jhMETQFJdB

— glassnode (@glassnode) May 28, 2025

The figures made the May 2025 movement the fifth-largest spending spike in this cycle after those that occurred in October 2024 ($9.25B), March 2024 ($6.11B), and February 2025 ($5.42B). The number of whale entities holding 1,000 BTC or more has also increased again, climbing to 1,455.

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