A notable decline in Bitcoin's price last week has been linked to a single influential investor, commonly referred to as a 'whale', who reportedly sold off a substantial amount of cryptocurrency, as stated by James Van Straten, a research and data analyst at CryptoSlate, a cryptanalysis company.

The 15% decrease in Bitcoin's value from its highs of $49,000 since early January is believed to be a consequence of a trend known as 'sell the news', which often occurs following a major announcement such as the U.S. approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Bitcoin. However, Van Straten suggests that another factor may be at play: an unidentified 'whale' who acquired a large cache of 100,000 BTC in 2021, valued at $4.8 billion at the time.

Van Straten speculates that this investor may have sold their Bitcoin once it reached breakeven at the $49,000 threshold. He suggests that this action could have triggered Bitcoin's most significant single-day drawdown since the FTX crash, coinciding with the initiation of ETF trades.

If accurate, this whale's sale could have yielded a substantial profit of $100 million, indicating that enduring Bitcoin's longest-standing bear market was financially rewarding. Van Straten also expressed concerns about the possibility of other 'whales' planning to sell significant Bitcoin holdings, which could exert further downward pressure on Bitcoin's price.

Following this significant sell-off, a cycle of mass liquidations among traders ensued, posing a risk of a downward spiral of losses from which Bitcoin has yet to fully recover. This underscores the substantial influence of large institutional players on Bitcoin's market dynamics, despite the anticipated impact of increased institutional access to Bitcoin still being unrealized.