Implications of the clearance of ancient giant whales

The previous day's teaching chain is hereInsiderLi mentioned that an ancient giant whale from the so-called Satoshi era (Satoshi era) cleared 80,000 pieces of flatbread (BTC). The incident was hailed by institutional trader Galaxy Digital as “one of the earliest and most important exits from the digital asset market.” So, what thoughts and enlightenment can we gain from this major withdrawal incident?

First, let's review the basic facts:

The BTC that was sold this time came from a position opened in early 2011. Actually, this was the post-Satoshi era (post-Satoshi era) rather than the Satoshi Nakamoto era, because Satoshi Nakamoto had already receded at this point. You might as well review the teaching chain 2025.7.4 article [“Giant Whale Awakens”].

Specifically, the total amount of sell-off was about 8,0009 BTC, or about 9 billion US dollars. The sell-off window is 2025.7.16 to 2025.7.25.

However, the impact of this sell-off incident on the market can be described as a small splash of water. The price of BTC only fell from 119k to 115k after reaching a new high, a drop of only about 3.5%, and recovered to 118k the day after clearance.

What does this phenomenon mean?

This means that within a few hours, the market absorbed approximately 4/1000 of the total supply of BTC without triggering any serial liquidations or chain collapse.

It seems that the structure and resilience of the crypto market have quietly undergone drastic changes. As some netizens said, this almost sends a strong signal to the market, proving that BTC already has extremely deep, institutional-grade liquidity. This has greatly strengthened the market resilience and carrying capacity of BTC.

You need to know that just a year ago, from the end of June to the beginning of July 2024, the German government cleared its holdings of about 50,000 BTC (49,858 pieces). The average sell-off price was 57.9k, making a profit of about 2.88 billion dollars. Teaching chain 2024.7.24 article [“MT.gox has distributed more than 40,000 BTC, how much impact does it have on currency prices?”] This is described in].

Notably, the time window for Texas's clearance is 2024.6.19 to 2024.7.13, at which point mt.gox has not yet begun distributing its BTC payouts.

Basically, BTC dropped from a low of 66k to 53k during the German clearance period, a drop of nearly 20%. Even with subsequent Mt.Gox distribution payouts, BTC only hit a low of 49k in 2024.8.5. This was the last low price before BTC hit 100,000 dollars at the end of the year.

In contrast, the 70,000 dollar BTC used a drop of more than 20% to absorb the selling pressure of 50,000 BTC, but now the 120,000 dollar BTC only needs a 3.5% drop to absorb the selling pressure of 80,000 BTC. In other words, a loss of less than $3 billion in blood could cause BTC to drop by more than 20%, but now $9 billion in blood loss has only caused BTC to drop slightly by 3.5% and recover as quickly as before. How incredible!

You need to know that the higher the price of BTC, the greater the selling pressure generated by each BTC. A sell-off of 70,000 dollars of BTC requires 70,000 dollars from the market to accept; while a sale of a BTC of 120,000 dollars requires the market to provide 120,000 dollars to accept it.

After just one year, BTC's liquidity depth and carrying capacity have taken such a huge leap forward?

Another classic example that can be compared is the Luna/UST crash in May 2022, where Do Kwon, the trader behind UST, was forced to pour 80,000 BTC into the market. According to the article “Liu Jiaochain Pro” 2022.5.11“UST Unanchored, and the Magic of Algorithmic Stablecoins Reproduces”The statement said, “On May 10, with UST's drastic de-anchoring, Do Kwon sold assets other than flatbreads, and there was no way to save them. In the end, he emptied more than 80,000 flatbreads he had emptied and saved the UST market.”

This 80,000 BTC was stuck around the key test level of 30,000 dollars in the “512” crash in mid-2021, directly taking away the fantasy of a second rebound continuing the bull market. A month later, BTC officially fell below the 30,000 dollar bull and bear watershed and declared that it had entered a deep bear.

Although the overall decline of Deep Bear in 2022, that is, nearly 77% of the decline from 69k to 16k cannot be blamed on the Luna/UST crash, then even if the cliff-style decline from 30,000 to 20,000 dollars from May to June 2022 is recorded on it, then there was a 33% decline.

More than 80,000 BTC was hastily destroyed. If calculated at 30,000 dollars, it was nothing more than 2.4 billion dollars in blood loss.

From this, we can see the changes in the BTC market structure and liquidity carrying capacity in recent years:

In 2022, at a height of 30,000 dollars, 80,000 BTC were sold, and 2.4 billion dollars were overdrawn, accelerating into Deep Bear.

In 2024, at a height of 60,000 dollars, 50,000 BTC were sold, and an overdraft of 2.8 billion dollars began. At the end of the year, the bull market began to rise, breaking through 100,000 dollars, and reached a new all-time high.

In 2025, at a height of 120,000 dollars, 80,000 BTC were sold, and 9 billion dollars were overdrawn. The tiger's body was shocked. Currently, it looks like there is no big deal.

Of course, if you refer to the 2022 sell-off, it may take more than a month to show results due to internal injuries, then it is probably not enough to make the following conclusions.

Judging from BTC stocks on exchanges, this wave of sell-offs does seem to have been quickly “bought and sold.”

Netizens also have two attitudes about this:

One is that the big chips should have been sold out, and the car will be lighter afterwards, which will help the market to rise more easily in the future.

Another view is that the long-term sell-off of diamond hands is worrying; this may suggest a wave of sell-offs that may follow, or even a quiet shift in long-term beliefs.

At any rate, a new era of BTC may have quietly begun: ancient giant whales are handing over chips, and institutions are gradually taking over.

The new era requires fresh blood, and the new stage requires new strength to lead. Only in this way can the back waves of the Yangtze River push forward, continue to push BTC forward, and never stop.