Over the past three days large Bitcoin holders, colloquially referred to as whales, have “sold or redistributed” around 30,000 BTC, the equivalent to more than $1.8 billion worth of the flagship cryptocurrency.

That’s according to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment first shared by popular cryptocurrency analyst Ali Matinez, who shared the data with his followers on the microblogging platform X.

#Bitcoin whales have sold or redistributed around 30,000 $BTC in the past 72 hours, totaling $1.83 billion! pic.twitter.com/y9FsARYrmM

— Ali (@ali_charts) October 10, 2024

The whales’ sell-off comes at a time in which the price of Bitcoin has plunged rom a high near the $64,000 mark to around $60,700 at the time of writing in a sell-off that has seen the cryptocurrency market as a whole lose nearly $100 billion in value.

The sell-off comes at a time in which recent analysis suggests that short-term BTC holders have been “gradually exiting” the market, which leads to reduce selling pressure.

The analysis, conducted by CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech, shows the the supply of Bitcoin being held by short-term holders has declined “especially after major sell-offs,” which reduces selling pressure and creates “opportunities for accumulation and may signal a price floor.”

The analyst noted that as short-term holders sell their coins, these often end up in “stronger hands, potentially stabilizing the market.”

As reported, Bitcoin has been seeing new whales ‘fiercely’ add BTC to their holdings amid an accumulation trend that the market “has never seen,” as whales that have entered the market during the latest bull run keep looking for profit.

Featured image via Pixabay.