BlackRock Stuns Coinbase With Massive BTC, ETH Selling, What’s Next?

In a recent move, BlackRock has deposited 3,900 BTC worth $275 million and 27,197 ETH worth $56.68 million to Coinbase Prime, according to Lookonchain.

This has been BlackRock’s usual practice in recent weeks, moving significant amounts of Bitcoin and ETH to Coinbase. As reported by Lookonchain, on Feb. 3, Blackrock shifted 1,134 BTC worth $88.68 million and 35,358 ETH worth $80.65 million to Coinbase Prime.

The latest Bitcoin and Ethereum shift by BlackRock follows a broader market sell-off, with Bitcoin falling below $70,000.

Bitcoin has dropped since it reached an all-time high above $126,000 last October. The largest cryptocurrency is now down nearly 40% from this peak with alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins), including Ethereum, down by even more.

U.S. exchange-traded funds, which purchased 46,000 Bitcoin around this time last year, are net sellers in 2026, according to CryptoQuant.

Market faces sell-off

Bitcoin fell as low as $69,030 early Thursday, extending its drop from Feb. 3 into the third day. This marks its first dip below $70,000 since November 2024. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 8.81% in the last 24 hours to $69,854.

Bitcoin is down roughly 21% on a weekly basis, on track for its worst week since Nov. 11, 2022, when it fell 20.85%. According to Glassnode, the BTC capitulation metric has seen its second largest spike in two years, highlighting a surge in forced selling.  This often coincides with increased de-risking as well as volatility while market participants reset positioning.

On Feb. 4, Bitcoin’s Entity-Adjusted Realized Loss for the seven-day SMA reached $889 million per day, the highest daily loss realization since November 2022.

Elsewhere on the crypto market, altcoins are in the red on a daily and weekly basis. At the time of writing, ETH was down 5.91% in the last 24 hours to $2,061. The second largest cryptocurrency has dropped 23% weekly, about to surpass its losses for the week of Nov. 11, 2022, when it fell 23.91%.

The drop in the crypto market follows a broad sell-off in tech stocks; precious metals also continue to be volatile, with silver dropping on Thursday and gold under pressure.