A dormant Bitcoin whale known as a “Bitcoin OG” has awoken after seven years and moved a significant portion of their Bitcoin stash over to Ethereum.
On-chain data has tracked the address that transferred a staggering 100,784 BTC, approximately worth $642 million at the time of transfer 7 years ago.
On August 21nd, the whale came out of dormancy and sold a massive portion of the stash of the Bitcoin stash to buy spot 62,914 ETH ($267 million).
Additionally, the whale took out a massive amount of long positions of 135,265 ETH, worth about $577 million, signifying a strong belief in Ethereum’s medium to long-term development.
Activity Unfolding Over Several Wallets Raises Whale Tracking Issues
In addition to this, further on-chain analytics suggest that this may not just be an isolated event. Another address was looking to transfer 85,947 BTC ($547 million) following similar trading behavior.
The activity has noted the possibility of this being the same whale to diversify its exposure with multiple wallets.
Reports confirm there are currently six wallets identified with this whale that have a total BTC balance of a whopping 83,585 BTC worth over $9.4 billion.
Actions occurring from just one individual can demonstrate how much influence whales still have on the ecosystem and how crypto markets are reacting.
Also Read: Bitcoin Whale Faces $6.75M Loss on BTC Long Position Loss Via Hyperliquid As Market Dips
Ethereum Market Shows Institutional Strength Amid Whale Selling
The timing of this tactical switch is explicitly interesting because of Ethereum’s market behavior.
Earlier this week, three other whales sold a total of 34,496 ETH at a dip, which put slight upward pressure on the market. But that downward pressure was quickly absorbed by institutional traders.
Two institutional wallets purchased 9,044 ETH, valued at $38 million each, while publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, BitMine Immersion Technologies, purchased 52,475 ETH for its treasury.
The rapid purchases indicate institutional purchasing power acting as a stabilizer in the ETH market beyond conventional retail and commercial forces.
The whale’s pivot from Bitcoin to ETH is aligned with the trend of large holders of BTC overall reducing their risk exposure of massive BTC holdings since 2017.
Prominent on-chain analyst, Willy Woo, has previously pointed out via a post on X that wallets holding more than 10,000 BTC have been systematically liquidating over the last few years, matching the rightful portion institutional investors are moving into BTC.
The behaviour can reflect systematic trajectories of diminishing influence, as early adopters reallocate their risk across other assets.
At the same time, large institutional investors stay in an accumulation phase for BTC and ETH regardless of price.
Also Read: Bitcoin Whale Awakens After 14 Years & Moves 20,000 BTC Worth $2.18B Acquired at $0.78 Each
Current Market Snapshot: BTC Weakens, ETH Gains Modestly
Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $113,216, down 0.35% in the last 24 hours, and 4.91% in the previous week, with a market cap of $2.25 trillion ($771 billion behind Ethereum).
Ethereum, by contrast, has outperformed Bitcoin. It has risen 0.34% in the last day to $4,309.57, but it has decreased 6.92% over the previous week with a market cap of $519.7 billion.
Notably, just a day ago on the 21st of August, UnoCrypto reported another whale worth $1.69 billion (14,837 BTC) sold 670 BTC to open a $295 million ETH long.
All these moves suggest a developing trend where long-term Bitcoin whales are reallocating into Ethereum while institutions continue to reassert control.