Bitcoin whale reveals 3.5K BTC short: Key support levels to watch next
Key points:Bitcoin chops around $114,000 as a whale expects more BTC price losses next.Price pressures short-term holders, who have their cost basis just below the $114,000 mark.Key moving averages are in view as support bases.Bitcoin struggled to hold its rebound at Monday’s Wall Street open as a controversial whale added to their BTC price downside bet.Bitcoin whale doubles down on BTC price dipData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed retreating from daily highs of $116,000.The pair quickly closed an upside “gap” in CME Group’s Bitcoin futures market, and then dipped under the daily open.$BTC CME Gap has now been closed ✅ https://t.co/Cd6fq3Na1A pic.twitter.com/OWy2aa1bb6Markets were unmoved by words from the US government over a potential US-China trade move that could avert a major tariff escalation.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “working level” talks with China later in the week.“We believe this is a tactical escalation (by Beijing) to shape pre-summit bargaining, not a strategic decoupling,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on the day, quoted by sources including Reuters.As traders waited for cues, attention focused on an unknown Bitcoin whale who had capitalized on Friday’s $20 billion liquidation event by shorting just before the China news hit.On Monday, the entity added to its short position, which at the time of writing was worth 3,500 BTC with a liquidation price of around $120,000.“As I said yesterday, he maybe wants to lose money or get liquidated so people won’t think he had insider information,” crypto analyst and entrepreneur Ted Pillows reacted in a post on X.Commentator Max Keiser suggested that foul play was involved, claiming that “banks are lending (ie printing) billions to fund naked Bitcoin-shorts.”“It won’t work,” he added.Bitcoin speculators flip between profit and lossBTC price action thus circled a key support line, represented by the aggregate cost basis of short-term holders (STHs).As Cointelegraph reported, STH wallets, tied to entities hodling for up to six months, function as a safety net during bull market drawdowns.Data from onchain analytics platform Glassnode puts the STH cost basis at $113,861 as of Sunday.Continuing, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant flagged three trend lines as important to watch next: the 30-day, 90-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs).In one of its “Quicktake” blog posts on the day, contributor Arab Chain wrote:“This structure suggests that the long-term structural uptrend remains intact (as the price is still above the 200-DMA), but short- to medium-term tactical momentum has weakened, with the price now below the 30- and 90-DMA, which have converged into a dynamic resistance zone.”This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.