Bitcoin’s price dropped over the weekend after a brief rally sparked by comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Bitcoin fell 2.1% to US$112,692 as of early August 25, 2025, after surging above US$117,000 on August 22, 2025.

Analysts cited large holders shifting from bitcoin to ether, and overall market recalibration, as key reasons for the decline.

Kronos Research CIO Vincent Liu said the Friday rally was driven by thin liquidity and faded quickly as leverage unwound.

Posts on social media suggested that a large holder sold over 24,000 BTC last week, but Liu said it is more likely that several whales or an exchange contributed to the price movement.

Data from Lookonchain pointed to some major holders rotating bitcoin into ether, with one account moving part of its 100,784 BTC to buy 62,914 ETH and build a derivatives position.

Bitcoin’s market dominance is now at 57.9%, down from around 61% earlier in August.

🔗 Source: The Block

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Whale selling patterns challenge common market assumptions

The narrative of whales destabilizing Bitcoin markets may be oversimplified, despite weekend reports of major BTC-to-ETH rotations.

Research by Chainalysis shows that only about a third of Bitcoin’s largest wallet holders are actually active traders, while trading whales have historically been net purchasers during major price declines rather than sellers 1.

This contradicts the common assumption that large holders primarily drive downward price movements during market stress.

The 32 largest non-exchange wallets hold approximately 1 million bitcoins, yet many of these so-called “whales” remain inactive, suggesting that market impact from whale activity may be more nuanced than weekend price action indicates 1.

2️⃣ Cross-asset rotation signals institutional strategy shift rather than market manipulation

The recent whale movement from Bitcoin to Ethereum reflects broader institutional portfolio rebalancing rather than simple profit-taking.