Key Takeaways
- The wallet bought 1,075.6 BTC at an average $79,412, paying about $170,000 in Thorchain swap fees.
- Its earlier exit from 50,600 ETH at $2,921 locked in roughly $19.02 million in realized profit.
- With BTC near $77,200, the new position sits about $2.35 million underwater before the Sept. 16 Fed decision.
The Trade That Earned the Attention
In late 2025, the whale liquidated 50,600 ETH at an average price of $2,921, a sale worth close to $147.8 million that booked about $19.02 million in realized profit. Then it did nothing at all for eight months.
That silence is what caught everyone’s eye, as the wallet did not rotate into another altcoin, did not chase the August rally, and did not redeploy while ether recovered. It sat in stablecoins through the entire stretch, which is why onchain trackers flagged it the moment it started spending again.
How the $85 Million Went In
The wallet first moved 14 million USDC into 179.8 BTC at around $78,955 over a single day. Within the subsequent twenty-four hours, the position had grown to 767.8 BTC, purchased with another 60.37 million USDC.
The completed run now stands at 85.42 million USDC converted into 1,075.6 BTC over four days, at an average cost of $79,412 a coin. That figure includes roughly $170,000 in swap fees paid to Thorchain, the cross-chain protocol the whale used to move value between networks without touching a centralized exchange.
Routing $85 million through a decentralized swap layer, rather than an exchange desk, keeps the flow visible onchain but avoids the custody and identity checks a venue of that size would apply.
The Position Right Now
BTC is changing hands near $77,200 at the moment, which puts the whale roughly $2,185 below its average entry on every coin, or about $2.35 million underwater on paper. That is an uncomfortable start, though not an unusual one for a position built deliberately over days rather than minutes.
It also arrives at an awkward moment given traders are pricing a strong chance of a Federal Reserve rate increase at the Sept. 15-16 meeting, an outcome that has capped every attempt at $80,000 this month.
Another pertinent aspect of the whole move is the $74.32 million still sitting unspent. A wallet with that many stablecoins left has definitely not finished making moves but has not committed to a price either. In the weeks ahead, the whale can choose to average down if the Fed delivers a hike and risk assets sell off, or stand aside entirely.
Bitcoin.com News recently covered a trader whose $70 million bitcoin long sat $400 from liquidation, and a dormant wallet that woke after seven years holding $188 million. However, what separates this one is the track record attached to it.
From the outside looking in, it seems as though the next four days will say more than the last four because if the individual keeps buying through a hawkish Fed, their conviction is definitely real. But if the remaining $74 million stays parked, the accumulation will likely be viewed as a simple, routine trade.
