Bitcoin experienced a significant drop in value as a major investor made the decision to sell off thousands of coins in exchange for Ethereum. This move caused the price of Bitcoin to plummet to around $111,600, marking its lowest point in over a month.
Data from CryptoSlate revealed that Bitcoin’s value had decreased by nearly 3% in a single day, wiping out any gains made just a week prior when the cryptocurrency briefly surpassed $117,000. The drop in price was attributed to a substantial sell-off from one of the network’s long-standing and affluent wallets, which put pressure on the entire market.
The investor in question, who had originally received over 100,000 BTC seven years ago, had been actively shifting their focus towards Ethereum. Over the course of five days, the wallet deposited close to 23,000 BTC, valued at approximately $2.6 billion, onto the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. These sales were followed by the purchase of roughly 473,000 ETH, worth $2.2 billion, along with the initiation of a significant long position.
Despite taking some profits by closing more than 95,000 ETH longs, the investor continued to hold over 40,000 ETH in open long positions, with unrealized gains exceeding $11 million. The proceeds from the profits were reinvested into additional ETH spot buys, totaling over 23,500 tokens valued at $108 million.
The shift in investment strategy also led to a surge in trading activity on Hyperliquid, the largest decentralized perpetual exchange. Spot trading volumes on the platform reached a record $3.4 billion in a single day, with BTC trading alone accounting for $1.5 billion. This level of activity surpassed trading volumes on platforms like Coinbase and Bybit, coming close to matching the volume on Binance.
As a result of the increased trading activity, Hyperliquid generated over $4.7 million in trading fees in a day. A portion of these fees was used to buy back the exchange’s native HYPE token, with contributions from its subsidiary, Unit, totaling almost $1.9 million.
Despite the market fluctuations and the shift in investment trends, Bitcoin remains the top cryptocurrency by market cap, with a value of $2.21 trillion and a 24-hour trading volume of $81.38 billion. The total crypto market is currently valued at $3.84 trillion, with a 24-hour volume of $227.68 billion and Bitcoin dominance at 57.56%.