The cryptocurrency sector is changing as new players join, but also as others leave. And while traditional finance is arriving en masse, a historic BTC holder since 2011 has just sold off its holdings for $1.3 billion.
A historic Bitcoin whale sells all its BTC
The year 2025 will certainly go down in Bitcoin history as the period when it definitively crossed over into traditional finance. The reasons for this are a very popular US spot ETF market, but also massive accumulation in a multitude of publicly traded Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs).
This situation does not necessarily suit retail investors, who were largely sidelined during the last bull market in the face of increasing institutional involvement. And it goes without saying that the current drop in the price of BTC below $85,000 does not help matters.
It is in this particular context that a long-time Bitcoin holder has just decided to sell all of his BTC, which he had held firmly since 2011. According to data from the on-chain monitoring site Arkham Intelligence, the wallet, which initially contained around 11,000 BTC, now has only $0.53 left.
Owen Gunden was an OG Bitcoin whale who had held BTC since 2011. Since the end of October, he has sold 11,000 BTC worth $1.3 billion. He has just transferred $230 million worth of BTC to Kraken, marking his final sale.
Arkham Intelligence
A $1.3 billion “generational transfer”
According to information published by Arkham Intelligence, this large-scale operation began at the end of October with a first series of transfers involving significant amounts of BTC leaving a decade-old wallet.
These transfers quickly indicated that their main destination was the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange platform, suggesting that this historic whale was preparing to sell its BTC at what could be described as an extraordinary capital gain, since their sale price is between $90,000 and $110,000.
In early 2011, BTC was trading at around $1, before reaching an annual high of nearly $30 in June. Based on the latter price, Owen Gunden has just made an exceptional capital gain of over 300,000%.
These BTCs had been accumulated by Owen Gunden through arbitrage transactions between the Mt. Gox and Tradehill platforms, at a time when very few exchanges allowed Bitcoin to be purchased.
Their current resale raises many questions, the most common of which concerns what some are calling a “generational transfer,” with long-time BTC holders jumping ship as institutional funds begin to pour in en masse.
