According to Jacob King, CEO of WhaleWire, the whale moved 24,000 BTC in a single day, causing a sharp drop in a matter of minutes.
So far, more than 18,000 BTC have been liquidated, valued at about 2 billion dollars, while the remaining 6,000 BTC, equivalent to 670 million dollars, are still waiting to be sold.
The size of the operation broke key technical supports of Bitcoin, and brought its price down to a low of 111,200 dollars, according to data from BeInCrypto. However, it has recovered slightly and is now trading at 113,514 dollars.
The whale's movement also triggered a cascade of liquidations in the futures market. According to data from Coinglass, over 389 million dollars have been liquidated in the last 4 hours.
Of this total, 357 million dollars correspond to long positions (207 million dollars correspond to Bitcoin). This selling pressure highlighted how a single actor can temporarily disrupt market stability.
Most importantly, a large part of the capital did not leave the crypto ecosystem: the funds were directed to Ethereum, boosting its liquidity and reinforcing the narrative of capital rotation towards the second largest cryptocurrency in the market.
The flash crash caused by the sale of 24,000 BTC is a reminder of the high volatility of the crypto market and of the power that a single actor can exert over its course.
