A Bitcoin (BTC) whale who first purchased the apex crypto in 2011 has sold off his entire Bitcoin stockpile as retail investors flee the market. His move comes as Bitcoin sees a sharp selloff that has caused the industry to question whether the crypto market is entering a bear market.
Inside Owen Gunden’s Shocking Bitcoin Exit
A wallet tagged by on-chain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence as belonging to Owen Gunden moved its last 2,499 Bitcoin, valued at $230 million, to centralized digital asset exchange Kraken on Thursday.
Gunden, who first acquired BTC back in 2011 and was previously believed to be one of the top three richest crypto billionaires, has been slowly offloading his crypto fortunes over the years, according to Arkham, but has ramped up his selling over the last month.
On-chain data indicates that the OG whale has liquidated his entire 11,000 BTC stash worth approximately $1.3 billion since Oct. 21.
Gunden’s sales come amid increasing concerns over the end of Bitcoin’s parabolic bull run. Bitcoin extended its violent November wipeout on Friday, slumping to $81,050 as a cascade of leveraged liquidations and crumpling sentiment exacerbated what is shaping up to be the worst monthly correction since the crypto winter of 2022.
BTC has now dropped 32.7% since hitting its historic high of $126,080 just over a month ago, CoinGecko data shows.
According to Arkham’s list of top crypto millionaires, Gunden is the eighth-wealthiest individual in the crypto space, with a net worth of around $561 million. He was an early Bitcoin arbitrage trader on exchanges such as Tradehill and the now-defunct Mt. Gox. The Bitcoin wizard seemingly does not have an active online presence, but he remains popular within the cryptoverse due to his massive early bet on the world’s largest and oldest crypto.
As Bitcoin erases all its year-to-date gains, Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood has trimmed her BTC price target from $1.5 million by 2030 to $1.2 million, noting that stablecoins are scaling faster than Bitcoin and increasingly serving as digital dollars for payments instead of the OG cryptocurrency.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/legendary-bitcoin-whale-dumps-his-entire-1-3-billion-stack-after-hodling-btc-since-2011/
