Bitcoin dips as dormant whale moves 16,843 BTC

Bitcoin took a breather on Tuesday after notching new all-time highs above $123,000. This pullback comes in as an “OG” whale wallet, dormant for over a decade, moved $2 billion worth of BTC to Galaxy Digital. This move has sparked speculation that a major sell-off may be underway.

The world’s largest crypto is down by almost 5% in the last 24 hours, trading around $116K zone. This has been seen as its steepest drop over the last month. The recede follows Bitcoin’s massive breakout on Monday, basically fueled by optimism around US crypto legislation expected to advance this week. However, growing institutional demand for BTC is another key trend.

Whale awakens after 14 years

An OG Bitcoin whale that had remained inactive for over 14 years transferred 16,843 BTC (approx. worth $2 billion) to Galaxy Digital across several transactions. The transfers to Galaxy Digital were made in seven separate transactions, beginning on Monday. Different batch sizes ranging from 500 to 4,500 BTC were moved. The final tranche of 3,160 BTC was sent out on Tuesday.

This looks to be the first cash-out in the whale wallet’s BTC history. Some analysts initially suggested these movements might be linked to address management or security upgrades. Meanwhile, the latest transfers to Galaxy Digital indicate that the whale may now be preparing to sell.

This Bitcoin OG with 80,009 $BTC($9.46B) transferred another 7,843 $BTC($927M) to #GalaxyDigital, for a total of 16,843 $BTC ($2B).

Galaxy Digital is depositing $BTC to exchanges, and 2,000 $BTC($236M) has been directly deposited to #Bybit and #Binance.https://t.co/Sm9UBYboIN pic.twitter.com/rwxHtrV0DQ

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 15, 2025

The whale’s decision to cash out into Galaxy Digital may not necessarily signal a bearish move. Instead, it reflects well-planned portfolio rebalancing after Bitcoin’s more than 100% year-to-date rally. On the other side, institutional inflows continue to outpace miner issuance. 

On Monday alone, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $297 million in net inflows. The cumulative net inflow now stands at $52.66 billion. BlackRock’s IBIT led the inflow run with $394 million while ARK’s ARKB lost $99.5 million in withdrawals.

Lookonchain reported that after seeing the Bitcoin OG whale start selling, another whale 0x960B instantly closed his long position and flipped short on BTC. CoinGlass data shows that around $160 million worth of long and short bets set on Bitcoin price have been liquidated over the last 24 hours. $144 million (90%) of the liquidated positions turn out to be long bets.

Crypto week begins with a pullback

Bitcoin briefly touched a record $123,000 over growing expectations that the US House of Representatives will pass key crypto legislation this week. However, Republicans are calling it the “Crypto Week.” These bills are seen as a gateway to long-awaited regulatory clarity.

As of now, BTC is hovering between $116K-$117K with a 24-hour trading volume of $147 billion. The global digital asset market cap saw a decline of more than 4% over the last day to stand at $3.66 trillion. The biggest altcoins like Ethereum, Solana and XRP are also bleeding.

The meme crypto category looks to be most affected in the fresh pullback. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu prices dropped by 8% and 6%, respectively, over the last 24 hours. The cumulative meme crypto market cap is down by 6% to stand at $64.5 billion.

Trump’s meme coin has struggled to maintain momentum despite celebrity backers and investor buzz. The coin, which soared to $75 shortly after its debut, slipped 6% to trade around $9.12. Last week saw crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun revealed a fresh $100 million investment into the Trump coin project. Still, investor sentiment appears to be cooling off as speculative assets take a backseat to blue-chip cryptos.

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