crypto.news
An anonymous address sold 250 wrapped Bitcoin worth $20.3 million on-chain, on-chain data showed on May 15.
Whale offloads $20.3m in wrapped Bitcoin
“A chain address sold 250 WBTC worth $20.3 million,” on-chain data aggregated by KuCoin’s flash news desk showed on May 15, without identifying the seller or their entry price.
Bitcoin was trading near $80,400 at the time of the transaction, down roughly 2% on the day. The broader market was already under pressure from surging Treasury yields and a fresh inflation print that pushed the 10-year note to 4.54%, its highest level since May 2025.
The wrapped Bitcoin sale compounds that pressure. WBTC operates as a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed ERC-20 token used across Ethereum DeFi protocols. Unlike native $BTC movements through centralised exchanges, on-chain WBTC disposals bypass traditional order books and are harder to anticipate from exchange flow data alone.
The move fits a wider pattern of large-holder activity flagged across 2026. Crypto.news reported that CryptoQuant analysts rejected wider dump fears following a separate dormant whale movement in early May, noting no confirmed exchange inflows from that wallet.
Prior to that, a long-dormant OG Bitcoin address offloaded 1,000 $BTC as selling pressure intensified, extending its total transfers to 3,500 $BTC since November 2024. Separate data showed whales collectively adding 61,568 $BTC even as price slipped, pointing to divergence between large-holder groups.
Whether the $20.3 million WBTC sale reflects coordinated distribution or isolated profit-taking remains unclear without further wallet history. Short-term price action continues to depend heavily on macro catalysts, particularly Federal Reserve policy expectations heading into the second half of 2026.