Fed Hawks Spook the Whales: Bitcoin OGs Dump a Cool $117M

Bitcoin's original degens have finally paper-handed. On-chain sleuths at Lookonchain spotted two crypto boomers executing a combined sell order of 1,650 BTC – a cool $117.87 million – in the early Thursday chill.

One seasoned whale, who previously unloaded an 11,000-BTC bag like it was hot, decided to part with another 650 BTC for good measure. A second early-miner, chilling with a 5,000-BTC treasure chest, casually sent 1,000 BTC straight to the sell wall.

This little firesale nudged Bitcoin down about 1% to $70,600, adding to Wednesday's 3.5% slide from its local top of $74,500. The rest of the crypto zoo followed the alpha predator's lead: the CoinDesk 20 Index fell 3% to 2,056 points, while ETH, XRP, SOL, and DOGE all painted similar shades of red on the charts.

So what spooked the old-timers? The Federal Reserve, playing the ultimate party pooper. While the Fed left its benchmark rate parked in the 3.5%–3.75% garage, its infamous "dot-plot" signaled maybe one lousy rate cut for the rest of 2026. The median projection now shows a single cut, with just two committee members still huffing the hopium for two cuts and Chair Powell himself revising his outlook higher.

“The 'higher-for-longer' narrative just got a fresh tank of rocket fuel from sticky inflation and the inflationary shadow cast by rising energy costs,” wrote Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21shares. “It's forcing investors to ditch their dreams of a rapid easing cycle and face the music.”

The market's bettors are getting the memo. Polymarket and CME Fed-funds futures now price in an ~80% chance of just one cut this year, a stark shift from a month ago when traders were betting on two or three. Tighter-for-longer liquidity is about as welcome as a gas fee spike, and the OGs' massive sell-off is the most expensive symptom of that sentiment you'll see all week.