The revelation of the ancient giant whale clearance

Author: Liu Jiaolian

The day before yesterday, Jiaolian mentioned that an ancient whale from the so-called Satoshi era had completed the liquidation of its 80,000 BTC. This event was hailed by Galaxy Digital, an institutional trader, as "one of the earliest and most significant exits in the digital asset market." So, what thoughts and insights can we gain from this major exit event?

First, let's review the basic facts:

The BTC sold in this case came from a position established in early 2011. In fact, this was already the post-Satoshi era rather than the Satoshi era, as Satoshi had already withdrawn from the scene by then.

The total amount sold was approximately 80,009 BTC, equivalent to about 9 billion US dollars. The time window for the sell-off was from July 16, 2025, to July 25, 2025.

The impact of this sell-off on the market was like a small splash. The price of BTC only dropped from a new all-time high of 119k to 115k, a decline of only about 3.5%, and rebounded to 118k the day after the liquidation was completed.

What does this phenomenon mean?

It means that the market absorbed approximately 0.4% of the total BTC supply within a few hours without triggering any cascading liquidations or chain collapses.

It seems that the structure and resilience of the crypto market have undergone earth-shaking changes quietly. As some netizens said, this is almost sending a strong signal to the market, proving that BTC already has extremely deep, institutional-grade liquidity. This has greatly enhanced the market resilience and absorption capacity of BTC.

It should be noted that just a year ago, from late June to early July 2024, the German government liquidated its holdings of approximately 50,000 BTC (49,858 coins) at an average selling price of 57.9k, making a profit of about 2.88 billion US dollars.

Notably, the German government's liquidation window was from June 19, 2024, to July 13, 2024, during which Mt.Gox had not yet started distributing its BTC compensation.

Essentially, during the period of the German government's liquidation, BTC dropped from 66k to a low of 53k, a decline of nearly 20%. Even with the subsequent addition of Mt.Gox's compensation distribution, BTC only hit a low of 49k on August 5, 2024, which was the last low before BTC surged to 100,000 USD by the end of the year.

In comparison, once upon a time, a BTC priced at 70,000 USD required a drop of over 20% to absorb the selling pressure from 50,000 BTC, while now a BTC priced at 120,000 USD only needs a 3.5% drop to absorb the selling pressure from 80,000 BTC. In other words, once a capital outflow of less than 3 billion USD could cause BTC to drop by more than 20%, but now a capital outflow of 9 billion USD only leads to a slight 3.5% drop in BTC, which quickly recovers to its original level. How incredible!

It should be noted that the higher the price of BTC, the greater the selling pressure generated by each BTC. Selling one BTC at 70,000 USD requires the market to provide 70,000 USD to take it; while selling one BTC at 120,000 USD requires the market to provide 120,000 USD to take it.

Has the liquidity depth and absorption capacity of BTC achieved such a huge leap in just one year?

Another classic case for comparison is that during the Luna/UST collapse in May 2022, Do Kwon, the manipulator behind UST, was forced to dump 80,000 BTC into the market. According to the article "UST Depegs, the Curse of Algorithmic Stablecoins Reappears" published in "Liu Jiaolian Pro" on May 11, 2022, "On May 10, as UST depegged sharply, Mr. Do Kwon sold assets other than Bitcoin but still couldn't save the situation. In the end, he emptied the more than 80,000 Bitcoins he had obtained through trickery to rescue UST."

In response to this, netizens hold two different attitudes:

One view is that all the large amounts of chips that should be sold have been sold, and then the "car" will be lighter, which will help the market to rise more easily in the future.

The other view is that the selling by long-term "diamond hands" is worrying, which may imply a wave of selling that may follow, and even a quiet shift in long-term beliefs.

In any case, a new era for BTC may have quietly begun: ancient whales are handing over their chips, and institutions are gradually taking over.

A new era requires fresh blood, and a new stage needs new forces to take the lead. Only in this way can the waves of the Yangtze River push forward the previous ones, continuously driving BTC to roll forward without stopping.

Disclaimer: The views in this article only represent the author's personal opinions and do not constitute investment advice on this platform. This platform does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, originality, and timeliness of the information in the article, nor does it assume responsibility for any losses caused by the use or reliance on the information in the article.