I clearly enjoy cryptocurrency, but even more, I have a never ending desire to understand it. People always talk about how crypto is "volatile" and big swings are just apart of the game. While I agree with that idea, I also find it hard to think of an asset that is more easily, commonly, and legally manipulated more than crypto. In the example below, I will be focusing specifically on BTC.

I was reading some deep analysis last night on the increasingly popular Direct trades (person-to-person)(peer-to-peer) P2P, online sales of bitcoin on a whale level. But, what has been growing in popularity is the manipulative, more profitable way whales have been selling/changing hands of bitcoin this cycle. And don't forget, the one of the goals of P2P whale transactions are to not crash the market, whether it's a crash up or down, as in real, big, 60% plus crashes. And the reason I bring that up is because you have to understand market-cap, liquidity, and how the stereotypical understanding of market-cap for crypto is completely misunderstood.

There are many situations where whale A wants to sell their BTC. But, instead of just dumping on the open market they make a private agreement with a Whale B who wants to buy BTC (P2P). For this more profitable & risky P2P example, they can find these whale buyers from discreet (in the know) middle men who take a commission, or if these whales are just (in the know) themselves. But having a trusted middleman makes the change of hands typically work far easier.

Instead of just sending/selling/buying from wallet to wallet, these P2P transaction events happen by Whale A announces he’s gonna dump BTC on the spot market and the (buyer) Whale B then opens a leveraged short on the market right before whale A dumps. Once whale A has dumped all his bag (big volume) BTC spot price will generally dump with it the majority of the time. As soon as the bag is fully dumped on the open market whale B closes their short. And as soon as whale B short is closed, whale A bag is dumped, and BTC price has violently dipped. Whale A then opens a new leveraged long.

Once new long is opened, whale B then immediately starts buying up the amount of BTC (worth in usd) prior to the dump. Whale B is now technically buying "discounted" BTC because the spot price is lower, but he's still spending the same amount of USD he would have if he had just bought via traditional P2P wallet transaction. Thus, whale B is actually now accumulating X amount of "extra" BTC for the same initial agreed upon price. Plus, whale B also profited big on the planned open short that whale B had just closed.

Once whale B buy's up the agreed upon amount in USD worth of BTC the spot market generally goes back to being stable, or whatever price BTC was at, at the start of the whole deal. When whale B finishes his buying, Whale A then closes his leveraged long that was opened during the dip caused by both parties. At this point both whale A and B have successfully changed hands, technically been paid, and are both far happier with the transaction financially because they received a much better bang for their buck deal than they would have if they just send the BTC via traditional P2P.

In a successful event like this, both parties report the total amount of "profit" they made from the change of hands, they report it to the middleman and/or to each other. This step is usually completely transparent & honest. Thus responsible for the increasingly popular way to sell & buy bitcoin when you are working with enough to move the market. In the case of the middleman, he will keep the whole thing private, both parties happy, take his cut, done.

This specific example was seen yesterday, and looked to be almost perfectly executed. Starting at 50324 whale A dumped. Price dipped to 48446, then bounced back to 50378.

Things to add:

Most of the time, at least during a bull market. The most common side effect will be the rebound bounce up goes higher than the spot price when the change of hands starts because retail traders open more longs than shorts, and typically open them towards the end of the bounce up or at the top.

This increasingly popular way to buy sell crypto as a whale can be regularly seen once you are aware of these behaviors. Some of these quick dip change of hands move the market a little, sometimes a lot. But the majority of the sharp volatility ends when the change of hands is over and likely when BTC returns to just about the same price at the beginning.

Sometimes multiple parties are involved. Multiple shorts, multiple longs, extra players etc..

There are times when one of the parties don't hold their end of the stick...

These transactions should take 20 minutes - 12 hours MAX. Anything longer is most likely regular market behavior.

Why is this important?

I have no idea, If anyone has something to add to this, please do. I have always had passing thoughts and market movements identifying manipulation, but never heard of a real, start to end proven example strategy until this one. I personally think it's lowkey awesome and if you place yourself in the position that the top 15k BTC wallets, Would you not do the same thing?