An unidentified wallet has sold 7,700 BTC — worth roughly $576.6 million — over the past three days, according to on-chain tracker Lookonchain, with the latest tranche of 2,700 BTC ($211.8 million) moving out just as spot Bitcoin ETFs post one of their strongest inflow streaks in months. The size and pace of the selling has made the wallet a focal point for traders trying to read whether large holders are fading the market's recent rally or simply taking profit into strength.
The sell-off lands in the middle of a genuinely split market. On one side, an anonymous holder is steadily converting a large Bitcoin position to cash. On the other, institutional buyers channeling money through spot ETFs have been doing the opposite for several consecutive sessions — a divergence that captures how differently on-chain whales and ETF-based investors are currently positioned.
ETFs Extend Their Buying Streak
Spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $507 million on Thursday, August 20 — their largest single-day intake since the first week of May and the third consecutive day of net inflows. BlackRock's IBIT led the pack, absorbing $285 million of that total, or 56% of all Bitcoin ETF demand that day. The streak didn't stop there: by Friday, August 21, ETF flow data shows spot Bitcoin ETFs added another $307 million, extending the run to five consecutive days of net inflows, while spot Ethereum ETFs pulled in a further $185 million of their own over the same session.
Smaller institutional desks were active too. Separate on-chain tracking showed BlackRock clients buying $239.28 million worth of BTC and Fidelity clients adding $30.19 million, alongside a $16.89 million XRP purchase attributed to Bitwise clients — all pointing to broad-based accumulation across multiple ETF issuers rather than demand concentrated in a single fund.
Reading the Divergence
A single wallet selling $576.6 million in Bitcoin is large in absolute terms but modest next to the hundreds of millions moving into ETFs on any given day during this streak — meaning the whale's selling has, so far, been comfortably absorbed rather than derailing the rally. That's a meaningfully different dynamic than periods when whale distribution has coincided with ETF outflows and produced sharper drawdowns.
Still, sustained selling from a single large holder is worth watching precisely because it's the kind of signal that can flip quickly from noise to consequence if ETF demand cools. For now, the pattern favors the buyers: five straight days of ETF inflows against three days of whale selling suggests the market has more than enough fresh institutional demand to absorb even a fairly determined seller, consistent with the broader momentum behind Bitcoin's biggest weekly gain since 2023.
