A Bitcoin whale wallet that had not moved for 7 years recently transferred 2,931 BTC, worth about $188 million, bringing renewed attention to the market influence of large holders.

Cointelegraph reported on July 13 that the coins moved on-chain for the first time since the period when bitcoin traded around $6,500.

On-chain analytics firm Arkham said wallet "356my" transferred 2,931 BTC to address "bc1qn" on the day. With bitcoin currently around $62,000, the holder is now sitting on an unrealised gain of nearly 10 times on the long-held stash. Onchain Lens viewed it as likely the wallet is looking at nearly 10 times returns from long-dormant holdings.

The move is drawing attention beyond a simple wallet transfer as it coincides with recent fund flows in the bitcoin market. A significant share of bitcoin moving into exchanges is whale money. CoinGlass classifies transfers of $10 million or more as whale movements, and large transfers are often seen as potentially leading to exchange selling, weighing on prices.

CryptoQuant data also reflects the trend. Since the start of the year, whales have led most bitcoin inflows to exchanges, and about 99 percent of current exchange deposits came from the 10 largest individual transfers. CryptoQuant's exchange whale ratio was above 0.99.

CryptoQuant said a high exchange ratio means whales account for a disproportionately large share of inflows. It added that such large deposits are more likely to precede meaningful sell orders than routine trading by retail investors, and have historically been seen as a bearish signal.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows are also being cited as a market burden. Farside Investors data showed spot bitcoin ETFs posted net inflows of $197 million over the past week, but recorded net outflows of $4.51 billion for June as a whole. That was the largest monthly outflow on record.

Markets are now watching whether the whale transfer leads to actual exchange inflows or selling. The overlap of large whale movements with an already high exchange whale share and continuing outflows by ETF holders is raising the possibility of pressure on bitcoin's short-term supply and demand. Still, the confirmed facts so far are the large movement from a long-dormant wallet and a rise in whales' share of exchange inflows.

A Bitcoin whale just woke up after 7 years. 2,931 $BTC (~$188M) was moved after sitting untouched since BTC traded at ~$6.5K. Today, with BTC above ~$64K, the same stack is worth nearly 10x more. Data credit: @arkham pic.twitter.com/y0JXIM91yK