Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin hit $118.9K as a whale sold 1,000 BTC. On-chain data showed rising profit-taking from STHs and LTHs amid growing sell-side risk. Will BTC’s $120K target survive rising sell pressure?
Bitcoin [BTC] surged to a new all-time high of $118,936 before slightly dipping to $117,811 by press time. With BTC hitting these levels, it has created a profit-taking window for most holders, both LTH and STH.
Bitcoin whale returns with $117M sale, but…
According to Lookonchain, a dormant whale wallet bc1q0l deposited 1,000 BTC ($117.67 million) to Binance—its first move in four months.
This wallet had withdrawn 2,100 BTC from Binance at $84,861, placing the realized gain at a hefty $68.8 million.
Source: X
Interestingly, the whale still holds 1,100 BTC, signaling partial conviction amid market volatility.
When whales turn to selling, it may signal strategic market positioning or indifference towards the market.
Both cohorts lock in profits
On-chain data showed that the whale was far from alone.
According to Checkonchain, as BTC surged from $110,000 to $117,000, so did the appetite to sell among short-term holders.
Source: Checkonchain
Thus, Realized Profit surged from 2.2k BTC to $3.2K by press time, with STH selling more than 1K BTC. Following a similar path, long-term holders have also sold over 11.4K BTC as of this writing.
Alongside profit realization, the STH Sell-side Risk Ratio—which gauges short-term sell pressure—rose from 0.0006109 to 0.001156.
Such a massive jump suggested that investors who bought Bitcoin have substantial incentives to sell.
Source: Checkonchain
When the risk of selling in a bull market arises, it can be a healthy market rotation. However, it can also result in a price decline if demand fails to absorb sell-side pressure.
Experts feel conflicted over Bitcoin’s next move
Unsurprisingly, amid BTC’s strong upswing, market experts have expressed diverging opinions over the next move.
For starters, precious metals enthusiast Peter Schiff has expressed strong pessimistic opinions. He claimed BTC was due for a steep crash and urged investors to pivot to metals before the next rally.
“Even if Bitcoin keeps rising for a while, silver should rise much more.”
On the Contrary, the Founder of BitMex, Arthur Hayes, sees the start of an altcoin season from this BTC rally.
According to him, after BTC surged to ATH, ETH followed, backed by substantial volume, setting the grounds to outperform BTC. From this shift, the likely outcome is a strong altcoin season, as the market anticipates that Trump will back off from Tariffs.
A cool-off or just clearing the runway?
AMBCrypto analysis found that current profit-taking still looked like a healthy rotation. As long as demand absorbs sell pressure, bulls could eye the $120K target next.
But if profit-taking accelerates, BTC could revisit the $111.9K support, where it previously faced resistance.
For now, momentum favors the upside, but the market knows when to cash in.