As the weekly open commenced Bitcoin price dropped below $9,000 in a rapid pullback, liquidating $30 million in longs on BitMEX alone. According to market data, part of the sell off was the movement of crypto whales closing positions which led to panic selling among retail investors.
Whales—individual investors that hold an immense amount of Bitcoin—have the ability to significantly impact the price of BTC and according to on-chain data provider CryptoQuant, the recent selling is indicative of the start of a bear trend within the market.