The strong price surge of Bitcoin (BTC) to an ATH of $123,000 at the beginning of the week triggered a wave of large-scale profit-taking. According to data from CryptoQuant, the leading sellers include miners and 'sleeping' whales—large wallets that have not been active for a long time.
On July 15, miners transferred over 16,000 BTC to exchanges—marking the largest sell-off day since April 7, when they transferred around 17,000 BTC.
Miners dumped 16,000 BTC
This move caused the Bitcoin reserves of miners to drop from 68,000 BTC to 65,000 BTC, the lowest level in a month. CryptoQuant stated: 'All of this BTC was transferred to exchanges, indicating that miners took the opportunity to sell when prices peaked.'
Not only miners, but many other investor groups also seized the opportunity to take profits. The total amount of Bitcoin flowing into exchanges in a day surged to 81,000 BTC, much higher than the 19,000 BTC just a few days earlier. Most of this came from whales, with the amount of tokens they moved increasing sharply from 13,000 BTC to 58,000 BTC.
A notable transaction of the day came from a wallet from the 'Satoshi era'—a wallet that had not been active since the early days of Bitcoin. This wallet unexpectedly transferred 40,000 BTC to exchanges. Initially, this wallet held over 80,000 BTC.
The blockchain analysis company Lookonchain believes this could be a profit-taking move from a long-term holder at a time when the market is too hot.
This strong selling activity created one of the largest profit-taking events of 2025. According to Glassnode, the realized profit recorded for the day reached $3.5 billion. Among these, long-term investors accounted for 56%, equivalent to $1.96 billion, while the short-term holder group earned $1.54 billion.
'Realized profit' is an on-chain metric that indicates the value of coins sold is higher than the value at the last transaction—helping to analyze investor behavior during volatile times.
After the massive sell-off, the price of Bitcoin has slightly decreased and is currently trading around $117,700.
However, observers remain optimistic about Bitcoin's long-term prospects. Supportive factors include crypto-friendly legislation recently passed in the U.S., along with increasing interest from global financial institutions, indicating that the leading asset still has significant growth potential.
