Bitcoin briefly fell below $108,000 on August 30, marking its weakest level since early July. The move came as market watchers tracked heavy selling pressure from a whale wallet that had been dormant for years.

Several on-chain analysts noted that the whale address suddenly began shifting large amounts of BTC, raising concern among traders.

Bitcoin Slips as Dormant Whale Shifts Billions Into Ethereum

On August 29, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence reported that an entity controlling more than $5 billion in Bitcoin was transferring it to Ethereum.

According to the firm, the whale moved about $1.1 billion worth of the asset into a new address before beginning a wave of Ethereum purchases.

Notably, Arkham said the whale had already accumulated roughly $2.5 billion in ETH last week.

Lookonchain, another blockchain analysis firm, reported that the whale had shifted 4,000 BTC—worth over $430 million—into Hyperliquid early Saturday. The move added weight to speculation that the whale was actively rotating into ETH.

Meanwhile, the whale’s aggressive repositioning quickly rippled through the broader market.

According to BeInCrypto data, Bitcoin shed about 2% in 24 hours, slipping below $108,000, while Ethereum gained a nearly identical percentage over the same window.

Crypto traders speculating on these asset prices also absorbed heavy losses.

Data from CoinGlass showed total liquidations across crypto assets exceeding $400 million in a single day. Ethereum’s long positions were hit hardest, with $133 million wiped out, while its Bitcoin counterparts lost $109 million.

Considering this, Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, warned that Bitcoin needs to recover the $112,000 mark to avoid deeper losses quickly. He projected that BTC could test support closer to $100,000 if momentum fails to return.

Moreno also pointed to sentiment gauges that remain firmly negative. The firm’s Bull Score index dropped to 20 earlier this week and has stayed there since—a reading that signals an “extreme bearish” environment.

So, until those metrics improve, analysts expect volatility to remain elevated.

Oluwapelumi Adejumo is a journalist at BeInCrypto, where he reports on a broad range of topics including Bitcoin, crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), market trends, regulatory shifts, technological advancements in digital assets, decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain scalability, and the tokenomics of emerging altcoins. With over three years of experience in the industry, his works have been featured in major crypto media outlets such as CryptoSlate, Coinspeaker, FXEmpire, and Bitcoin…

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