A wallet containing 4,582 BTC ($377.6 million) transferred its entire balance on Monday, according to onchain tracking data. The movement coincided with a separate whale selling 837.8 BTC at a loss to rotate $69.7 million into ether.
Dormant Bitcoin Holdings Reactivated
Onchain tracker Lookonchain reported that a Bitcoin wallet that had held 4,581.94 BTC since August 7, 2024, moved all of its coins on October 12 at 6:37 p.m. UTC. The transfer was split into five outputs: four transactions of exactly 1,000 BTC each and one of 581.94 BTC, with each sent to a fresh address that had no prior transaction history.
As of Tuesday morning, none of the transferred coins had been spent. The structured split into equal lots suggests custody restructuring or over-the-counter desk preparation rather than a panic sale. Similar large movements have occurred recently, with another wallet transferring 4,500 BTC after more than four years of inactivity.
Whale Converts Bitcoin to Ethereum
A second whale executed a deliberate rotation from Bitcoin to Ethereum by selling 837.8 BTC and purchasing 27,500 ETH ($69.68 million) at an average price of $2,534. The coins sold had been withdrawn from HTX exchange between March and June 2025 at an average cost basis of $95,434.
The transaction route involved selling Bitcoin on Hyperliquid for USDC, withdrawing to Arbitrum, bridging to Ethereum, and swapping for ETH onchain. The conversion resulted in a realized loss of approximately $5 million, or 13 percent, as the whale prioritized repositioning over minimizing losses.
Technical Levels and Market Context
The ETH/BTC exchange rate fell below 0.03 on October 13 for the first time since August 19, marking a significant technical level as both whales executed their moves. Bitcoin's price slipped under $82,000 on Monday night, triggering $406 million in liquidated longs before recovering above $83,500 on Tuesday.
Institutional flows have weighed on both assets, with Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds shedding $1.2 billion the previous week.
