Bitcoin Price Faces a Familiar Trap as Whales Start Selling
Bitcoin price is surrounded by bullish calls again, and that alone is enough to make the market nervous. Robinhood says more countries could follow the U.S. Strategic Reserve, Standard Chartered reiterated a $500,000 target, CZ expects further growth, Arthur Hayes sees prices reaching the hundreds of thousands quickly, and Strategy has announced a new $1.6 billion fund that could support further purchases. Bitcoin Price Hype Is Getting Hard to Ignore The bullish narrative doesn’t stop there. Strive reportedly bought more than 1,100 BTC for $80 million, taking its holdings above 21,000 BTC, while Strategy’s latest funding move has fueled speculation that its roughly 840,000 BTC stash could eventually approach 900,000. On the surface, that’s a spectacular setup. Institutional accumulation, sovereign interest and increasingly aggressive forecasts should be exactly what bulls want. But crypto has a nasty habit of making the obvious trade look stupid. The question now isn’t whether the biggest names are bullish. They clearly are. The question is who’s actually buying behind the noise. Retail Buyers Aren’t Chasing the Latest Rally Address-balance data paints a less comfortable picture. The smallest tracked cohort, holding 0.001 to 1 BTC, hasn’t shown renewed accumulation in August. Instead, holdings have declined since late July. The 1–100 BTC group has also been distributing since mid-July. Meanwhile, 100–1,000 BTC holders have started accumulating after a prolonged decline from May into early July. That’s an important split. Smaller holders aren’t aggressively chasing the bullish narrative, while intermediate-sized participants have stepped in. The 1,000–10,000 BTC cohort has also recently shown renewed accumulation after selling through early August. So far, however, the biggest cohort tells a very different story. Bitcoin Whales May Be Taking the Other Side Wallets holding 10,000–100,000 BTC accumulated from mid-June through the recent rally, but their holdings peaked around August 21 before dropping sharply by August 24. That suggests heavy distribution from the largest holders precisely as bullish calls became louder. If intermediate holders absorbed that supply while retail stayed cautious, the market may be creating a rather uncomfortable setup. Bitcoin price could still push higher if demand overwhelms that selling. But if the largest cohort continues distributing, the current optimism could become another liquidity event rather than the beginning of a clean breakout. In crypto, when everyone suddenly agrees that the next move is obvious, Bitcoin price is often worth watching most carefully.
Arthur Hayes Explains Why Bitcoin Could Hit $126K in 2026
Bitcoin could be heading for another major move, with BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes expecting BTC to reach $126,000 by the end of 2026. His bullish view is based less on crypto hype and more on a growing global debt problem, rising pressure on bond markets and the possibility of fresh liquidity from central banks. In a recent interview he revealed that the current crypto market 2026 could eventually hit a point where policymakers have little choice but to inject more money into the system, creating a strong setup for Bitcoin. Debt Could Become Bitcoin’s Biggest Catalyst Hayes sees the growing U.S. debt burden as one of the biggest issues facing markets. With around $40 trillion in U.S. debt and rising interest costs, he argues that keeping rates high for too long could put more pressure on Treasury markets. The recent increase in Treasury buybacks, is seen an early sign that officials are willing to step in if yields move too high. That means more liquidity more dollars chasing risk assets, and Bitcoin could be one of the prime beneficiaries. Why FIMA Could Change the Game Hayes is also following the Fed’s FIMA repo facility. Countries such as Japan hold huge amounts of U.S. Treasuries but may eventually need to sell those assets and bring capital back home. A large wave of Treasury selling could push yields higher and create problems across global markets. Hayes said the Fed could instead provide dollars against those Treasury holdings, allowing foreign governments to access liquidity without aggressively selling their bonds. If that facility is expanded significantly, Hayes sees it as a potential new source of dollar liquidity, and a major positive for Bitcoin. What If Bitcoin Falls to $35K? Hayes also outlined a much more painful scenario. If Bitcoin suddenly crashes to $35,000 because of forced selling or a major liquidation event, he does not necessarily see it as the start of another long bear market. Instead, he sees it might become the capitulation candle investors have been waiting for, similar to March 2020. In short, if policymakers respond with fresh liquidity, this will be a buying opportunity rather than a reason to abandon Bitcoin. Why Hayes Sees $126K On the other side, if liquidity expands while Bitcoin is already breaking higher, he expects momentum to accelerate. Then in that case a move toward $120,000 potentially turns into a much larger rally because many investors remain underallocated to BTC. For 2026, his realistic target is $126,000, taking Bitcoin above its previous all-time high. Beyond that, Hayes sees the possibility of BTC eventually reaching $500,000 if global liquidity keeps expanding. For him, the main risk is not another crypto crash but a major disruption such as war or a cyberattack that takes down critical infrastructure.
ジャスティン・サン氏によるWorld Liberty Financialに対する訴訟は、主要な手続上のハードルを越え、公の法廷で審理が継続することになりました。連邦判事は、World Libertyがサン氏の主張をすべて非公開の仲裁に付し、手続きを秘匿するよう求めた試みを退け、サン氏個人の主張については公の場での継続を認めました。 ジャスティン・サン氏の訴訟が公の場に移行 争いの発端は、サン氏がWLFIに対して報じられた4500万ドルの投資であり、4 billion tokensが関与しているとされます。サン氏は数億ドルの損害賠償を求めており、World Liberty Financialが保有者のトークンを凍結、移転、バーンするための契約上の権限を秘密裏に保持していたとして、それらの権限をサン氏に対して行使したと主張しています。