BlackRock Stuns Coinbase With Massive BTC, ETH Selling, What's Next?

In a recent move, BlackRock has deposited 3,900 $BTC worth $275 million and 27,197 $ETH worth $56.68 million to Coinbase Prime, according to Lookonchain.

This has been BlackRock’s usual practice in recent weeks, moving significant amounts of Bitcoin and $ETH to Coinbase. As reported by Lookonchain, on Feb. 3, Blackrock shifted 1,134 $BTC worth $88.68 million and 35,358 $ETH worth $80.65 million to Coinbase Prime.

The latest Bitcoin and Ethereum shift by BlackRock follows a broader market sell-off, with Bitcoin falling below $70,000.

Bitcoin has dropped since it reached an all-time high above $126,000 last October. The largest cryptocurrency is now down nearly 40% from this peak with alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins), including Ethereum, down by even more.

U.S. exchange-traded funds, which purchased 46,000 Bitcoin around this time last year, are net sellers in 2026, according to CryptoQuant.

Market faces sell-off

Bitcoin fell as low as $69,030 early Thursday, extending its drop from Feb. 3 into the third day. This marks its first dip below $70,000 since November 2024. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 8.81% in the last 24 hours to $69,854.

Bitcoin is down roughly 21% on a weekly basis, on track for its worst week since Nov. 11, 2022, when it fell 20.85%. According to Glassnode, the $BTC capitulation metric has seen its second largest spike in two years, highlighting a surge in forced selling. This often coincides with increased de-risking as well as volatility while market participants reset positioning.

On Feb. 4, Bitcoin’s Entity-Adjusted Realized Loss for the seven-day SMA reached $889 million per day, the highest daily loss realization since November 2022.

Elsewhere on the crypto market, altcoins are in the red on a daily and weekly basis. At the time of writing, $ETH was down 5.91% in the last 24 hours to $2,061. The second largest cryptocurrency has dropped 23% weekly, about to surpass its losses for the week of Nov. 11, 2022, when it fell 23.91%.

The drop in the crypto market follows a broad sell-off in tech stocks; precious metals also continue to be volatile, with silver dropping on Thursday and gold under pressure.