Miners and whales are selling off Bitcoin after hitting a new ATH.

The strong rally of Bitcoin (BTC) to the ATH level of $123,000 at the beginning of the week has triggered a wave of large-scale take profit. According to data from CryptoQuant, the leading sellers include miners and dormant whales – large wallets that have not been active for a long time.

On July 15th, miners transferred over 16,000 BTC to exchanges – marking the largest sell-off day since April 7th, when they moved approximately 17,000 BTC.

Miners sell off 16,000 BTC

This move caused the Bitcoin reserves of miners to drop from 68,000 BTC to 65,000 BTC, the lowest level in a month. CryptoQuant noted: "The entire amount of BTC has been transferred to the exchange, indicating that miners took advantage of selling when the price reached its peak."

Miners transfer BTC to exchanges | Source: CryptoQuantNot only miners, but many other groups of investors are also taking the opportunity to take profit. The total amount of Bitcoin flowing into exchanges in a day surged to 81,000 BTC, much higher than the 19,000 BTC just a few days ago. The majority comes from whales, with the amount of tokens they moved increasing sharply from 13,000 BTC to 58,000 BTC.

Whales transfer BTC to exchanges | Source: CryptoQuantA notable transaction of the day comes from a wallet from the "Satoshi era" – a wallet that has not been active since the early years of Bitcoin. This wallet unexpectedly transferred 40,000 BTC to the exchange. Initially, this wallet held over 80,000 BTC.

The blockchain analysis company Lookonchain believes that this could be a take profit move from a long-term holder at a time when the market is too hot.

This strong selling activity has created one of the largest take profit events of 2025. According to Glassnode, the realized profit recorded on the day reached 3.5 billion USD. Among them, long-term investors accounted for 56%, equivalent to 1.96 billion USD, while the short-term holder group obtained 1.54 billion USD.

The actual profit of Bitcoin | Source: Glassnode "Realized profit" is an on-chain metric that indicates the value of coins sold is higher than the value at the last transaction - helping to analyze investor behavior during volatile periods.

After a strong sell-off, the price of Bitcoin has slightly decreased and is currently trading around $117,700.

Nevertheless, observers still maintain an optimistic view on the long-term prospects of Bitcoin. Supportive factors include the crypto-friendly legislation recently passed in the U.S., along with the increasing interest from global financial institutions, indicating that the leading asset still has considerable growth potential.

Vincent