A Bitcoin whale just sold $9.5 billion in crypto that was originally acquired for $54,000 in 2014 — recent 80,000 BTC transaction nets an 18 million percent return
We seem to be in the middle of an especially frisky season for the so-called Bitcoin whales, as another remarkable crypto-cash-in, valued at $9.5 billion, has been spotted. This extraordinary financial transaction comes to light just a couple of weeks after an $8 billion sale hit the Tom's Hardware headlines.
The Bitcoin whale just sold all the 80,000 $BTC for $9.6B.Which was bought at 2011 for $54,000 pic.twitter.com/RN4REeVObFJuly 18, 2025
Kakashi on X/Twitter brought this huge trade to light, just ahead of the weekend. “The Bitcoin whale just sold all the 80,000 $BTC for $9.6B,” they remarked. “Which was bought at 2011 for $54,000.”
Those tens of thousands proved quite a canny investment, 14 years ago or so. Whipping out our abacus, we note that the unnamed whale made about an 18 million percent return. In easier to comprehend (or count to) figures, we could say that the whale’s investment ended up multiplying 176,000 compared to their initial stake. Others may prefer to say the return represented about a 145% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 14 years hold (or is that hodl).
One thing is for sure, it would have been pretty difficult to hold onto so much BTC for so long, seeing its value skyrocket, drop back, and hit the stratosphere again. Some would still insist that investments in crypto are entirely speculative, with no material asset values to fall back on if the worst happens.
July – the peak of the BTC whaling season
As mentioned in the intro, we saw another huge BTC transaction near the beginning of the month. In that instance, another 14-year-diamond-hands crypto investor, rumored to be Roger Ver, made a 4 million percent return on their investment.
The story goes that Ver originally bought 80,000 BTC in 2014 for around $210,000. That was the height of the ‘Satoshi-era.’ In early July 2025, they offloaded the crypto for over $8.6 billion. We noted that the previous record whale BTC trading transaction was for 3,700 BTC.
Will we see further whales liquidate their crypto before July is out? We don’t know, but if another similar transaction occurs in short order, other long-term holders would have to think very hard about why.
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