Bitcoin The biggest early holders, often called original gangsters, are hitting the sell button after the Federal Reserve dented expectations of lower borrowing costs.
Blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain shows that at least two long-term holders together sold more than 1,650 BTC worth more than $117.87 million early Thursday.
A veteran whale who had previously sold a stack of 11,000 BTC added another 650 BTC to his dump, while another pioneer OG with a stash of 5,000 BTC dumped 1,000 BTC.
Bitcoin’s price fell nearly 1% to $70,600 shortly before press time, extending Wednesday’s 3.5% decline from $74,500, according to CoinDesk data. The broader market wilted, with the CoinDesk 20 index down 3% to 2,056 points. Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL) and suffered similar losses.
The drop follows a hawkish move by the Fed on Wednesday, when the central bank left the benchmark borrowing cost unchanged in the 3.5% to 3.75% range but signaled a slower pace of rate cuts to come, disappointing risky asset bulls.
The hawkish tone came through the so-called interest rate dot plot, which shows where voting members of the Fed expect interest rates to land in the coming months. The median projection was for just one rate cut this year, despite recent weakness in the labor market. Additionally, only two committee members remained in the two-cut camp, and Chairman Powell’s personal projections increased.
“The higher, longer 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, crypto research strategist at 21shares, said in an email.
Taken together, these developments indicate that the central bank remains wary of inflation, leading to a sharp reassessment of bets on Fed rate cuts. Trading on the decentralized Polymarket platform and pricing of CME fed funds futures now imply a roughly 80% chance of a single rate cut this year, compared to a 62% chance of two to three rate cuts a month ago.
These prospects of tightening liquidity do not encourage risk-taking on the financial markets.
