Bitcoin Whale Snaps Up $200M BTC as Market Rebounds, BlackRock Boosts Holdings

A massive Bitcoin whale has made waves in the crypto market by purchasing 2,400 BTC worth over $200 million on March 24, according to Arkham Intelligence. This comes after the whale offloaded over 11,400 BTC throughout the past few months, coinciding with Bitcoin’s price dip from its February highs.

Following this latest buy, the whale’s total holdings have climbed to over 15,000 BTC, valued at $1.3 billion at current prices. Arkham noted that the whale withdrew the entire batch from Binance, signaling a potential long-term holding strategy.

Interestingly, the Bitcoin whale resumed accumulating crypto five days ago, after selling when Bitcoin traded between $100,000 and $86,000 in February. According to CoinGecko, BTC prices topped $104,000 on Feb. 1, before sliding to $78,940 by Feb. 28. However, Bitcoin has since staged a recovery, rallying 3% on March 24 to trade between $81,000 and $88,000 over the past week.

Dormant Bitcoin Whale Awakens

In another move, a long-dormant Bitcoin whale became active after eight years, moving over 3,000 BTC—worth around $250 million—in a single transaction on March 22. Arkham highlighted that the whale’s BTC stack, once valued at a modest $3 million in early 2017, has now surged to over $250 million.

Meanwhile, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has also been steadily accumulating Bitcoin. Over the past week, the firm added 4,054 BTC across 15 transactions, boosting its total holdings to 573,878 BTC—worth more than $50 billion, according to Bitbo’s treasury tracker.

BlackRock’s growing appetite for Bitcoin was further reflected in its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which led a surge in spot Bitcoin ETFs. IBIT recorded a net inflow of $744.4 million, breaking a five-week streak of net outflows. BlackRock contributed the lion’s share with $537.5 million, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which brought in $136.5 million.

Ether Whale Joins the Accumulation Trend

The accumulation trend wasn’t limited to Bitcoin. Lookonchain, using Arkham data, spotted a lone Ether whale acquiring 7,074 ETH—worth around $13.8 million—on March 21.

According to CoinGecko, Ether has been trading between $1,876 and $2,097 over the past week. Despite still being down 57% from its all-time high of $4,878 in November 2021, Ether’s open interest surged to a new record on March 21, while the number of addresses holding at least $100,000 worth of ETH grew from 70,000 on March 10 to over 75,000 by March 22.