Strategy sells its first token, Tether simultaneously reduces its holdings, causing Bitcoin to plummet.

Recently, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed a new round of extreme sell-offs.Bitcoin has rapidly declined in the short term, falling below $66,000 at its lowest point., with a single-day drop exceeding 6% and a weekly cumulative drop approaching 10%, completely ending its previous steady upward trend.

Strategy Sells Bitcoin for the First Time

In this round of market fluctuations, the most symbolic event and the one with the greatest impact on market sentiment is that Strategy, the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder, broke its four-year-old holding rule and sold Bitcoin for the first time.

In this round of market fluctuations, the most symbolic event and the one with the greatest impact on market sentiment is that Strategy, the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder, broke its four-year-old holding rule and sold Bitcoin for the first time.

According to recently disclosed official transaction data, Strategy sold 32 Bitcoins at an average price of $77,135, netting approximately $2.5 million. While the absolute scale of this sale is extremely small, representing only 0.0038% of its total holdings of 843,706 Bitcoins, it will have virtually no substantial impact on the market's supply. However, within the narrative of the crypto market, emotional influence far outweighs the size of the funds involved. Since 2022, Strategy founder Michael Saylor has consistently promoted the core narrative of "holding Bitcoin forever, buying on dips, and never selling," endorsing the bullish beliefs of institutional investors and becoming a core source of confidence for traditional capital entering the Bitcoin market. For four years, regardless of market shifts and volatility, Strategy has consistently adhered to a buy-only strategy, its unwavering commitment seen as a cornerstone of Bitcoin's long-term value. However, this recent small-scale sell-off has directly shattered the industry's accepted belief in never selling. Market investors have generally realized that even the most steadfast institutional Bitcoin holders adjust their strategies based on market conditions and funding needs, completely shattering the myth of "permanent Bitcoin hoarding." Following the news, bullish funds quickly withdrew from the market, resulting in a surge of sell orders that became the first line of defense to breach the $70,000 mark. Simultaneously, Strategy's US stock price plummeted by nearly 6%, and this synchronized decline in the capital markets further amplified the panic in the crypto market. Large On-Chain Transfer from Tether's Official Wallet If Strategy's sell-off shattered market confidence, then the large Bitcoin transfer by stablecoin giant Tether directly triggered extreme panic about increased selling pressure, further igniting the current downward trend. According to simultaneous disclosures by on-chain data monitoring platforms Arkham Intelligence and EmberCN, on the evening of June 2nd, a large amount of unusual activity occurred in Tether's official Bitcoin reserve wallet, with a total of 204.3 Bitcoins transferred from the reserve address to the leading exchange Bitfinex. Based on the market price at the time, the total value of the transferred assets was approximately $143,600. The transfer of on-chain funds from reserve wallets and cold wallets to exchanges has historically been a classic bearish signal in the crypto market. It means that long-term locked-up tokens are being unlocked and could potentially translate into selling pressure in the secondary market at any time. Compared to Strategy's minor reduction in holdings, Tether's unusual asset movement carries a more substantial deterrent effect. As the world's largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, Tether holds massive reserves of crypto assets, and its holdings directly impact the liquidity landscape of the entire market. Public data shows that the Tether reserve wallet involved in this transfer has been continuously using 15% of the company's profits to increase its Bitcoin holdings since 2023. It currently holds 96,936 Bitcoins, with a total market value of approximately $672 million, ranking as the fifth largest Bitcoin holding wallet globally. Although this transfer represents only a tiny fraction of the total holdings, at a time when market sentiment is extremely fragile, any loosening of holdings by a major player will be amplified. Market funds quickly interpreted the signal as Tether potentially initiating a phase of selling, with more reserve tokens expected to flow into the market. This expectation directly triggered a concentrated sell-off by quantitative trading bots and high-frequency trading funds, causing Bitcoin prices to plummet rapidly, with the decline instantly exceeding 5%. After the two major negative factors of Strategy's sale of tokens and unusual Tether holdings materialized, the already fragile crypto market completely lost its support. Coupled with external negative factors such as continued outflows from Bitcoin ETFs, escalating geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, and renewed expectations of a Fed rate hike, a panic sell-off swept across the market, initiating an extreme deleveraging process. From an overall market perspective, this deep correction represents a double clearing of both emotional and leveraged bubbles. The previous period of sustained high-level Bitcoin consolidation accumulated a large amount of leveraged long positions, and market sentiment was excessively uniform, creating a clear need for a correction. The actions of the two whales were merely the trigger; the essence was a concentrated release of inherent market risks.