Bitcoin The largest initial holders, often called original gangsters, are hitting the sell button after the Federal Reserve shook off expectations of lower borrowing costs.
Blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain shows that at least two long-term holders together dumped more than 1,650 BTC worth more than $117.87 million early Thursday morning.
A veteran whale who previously sold a stack of 11,000 BTC, added another 650 BTC to his dump, while a separate pioneer OG with a stash of 5,000 BTC dumped a full 1,000 BTC.
The price of Bitcoin fell almost 1% to $70,600 shortly before press time, extending Wednesday’s 3.5% drop from $74,500, according to data from CoinDesk. The broader market weakened, with the CoinDesk 20 index rising 3% to 2,056 points. Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL) and suffered similar losses.
The drop followed a hawkish Fed rate decision on Wednesday, when the central bank left its benchmark borrowing cost unchanged in the 3.5% to 3.75% range but signaled a slower pace of rate cuts ahead, disappointing risk asset bulls.
The hawkish tone emerged through the so-called “dot plot” of interest rates, which shows where voting members of the Federal Reserve expect interest rates to go in the coming months. The median projection indicated only one rate cut this year, despite recent labor market weakness. Furthermore, only two committee members remained in the camp of the two cuts, and Chairman Powell’s own personal projection increased.
“The long-term bull narrative has been reinvigorated by persistent inflation and the inflationary shadow cast by rising energy costs, forcing investors to abandon their dreams of a rapid easing cycle,” Matt Mena, cryptocurrency research strategist at 21shares, said in an email.
Together, these developments point to a central bank still cautious about inflation and this has led to a sharp revaluation of bets on Fed rate cuts. Trading on the Polymarket decentralized platform and pricing CME federal funds futures now implies around an 80% chance of a single rate cut this year, up from a 62% chance of two or three rate cuts a month ago.
This prospect of tighter liquidity does not support risk-taking in financial markets.
