These were the only transactions on ASICMINER-PT on BTCT for that whole hour - they all happened in 3 minutes total. Somebody just thew away a lot of money to create positive momentum.
/tinfoil
Or maybe that whale just wanted cheap shares?
The buys happened within a few minutes of the Avalon announcement. Mr. Whale might just have been waiting to see if the competition was about to get 200 million dollars before he felt safe to buy.
Why would two different whales, less than 20 minutes apart, buy exclusively on the asks and sell exclusively on the bids? Why would they take that huge haircut instead of putting up their own bids/asks somewhere in the middle of the spread?
And if the sudden volume happened because of the news, why wasn't there
any volume that didn't occur during 2 specific 1-2 minute intervals? Seems odd that two whales decided to trade (in opposing directions, at a significant haircut to both), but not even one little guy put his chips down.
You don't end up with whale money by trading like an idiot. No, this individual clearly stood to gain by creating positive momentum - at the very least we know he owns a lot of shares, so he'd probably like to see a 4+ price again to cash out.
The seller did it when the shares were in free-fall, before the Avalon announcement. The buyer whale was possibly expecting others to buy after hearing the announcement. Looking at the flames and pitchforks against Avalon in that thread, I can't say I blame him.
If the bids and asks aren't far apart, and the price is moving fast or you expect it's about to move sharply, big eating of walls isn't necessarily idiotic, and it's not that uncommon.
Here's an example from a few hours before the one you listed, that's several times bigger, about 250 shares in 2 minutes:
03:20:50 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.468 BTC
03:20:51 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.469 BTC
03:20:52 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.474 BTC
03:20:54 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 5 @ 3.474 = 17.37 BTC
03:20:55 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 16 @ 3.475 = 55.6 BTC
03:20:56 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 20 @ 3.494 = 69.88 BTC
03:20:57 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 25 @ 3.495 = 87.375 BTC
03:22:29 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.499 BTC
03:22:31 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 2 @ 3.5 = 7 BTC
03:22:32 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.579 BTC
03:22:34 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.58 BTC
03:22:34 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.582 BTC
03:22:35 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.583 BTC
03:22:36 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.585 BTC
03:22:37 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.595 BTC
03:22:38 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 2 @ 3.596 = 7.192 BTC
03:22:39 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.598 BTC
03:22:40 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.6 BTC
03:22:42 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.61 BTC
03:22:43 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 5 @ 3.62 = 18.1 BTC
03:22:44 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 1 @ 3.625 BTC
03:22:45 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 5 @ 3.638 = 18.19 BTC
03:22:45 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 2 @ 3.64 = 7.28 BTC
03:22:46 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 18 @ 3.641 = 65.538 BTC
03:22:47 assbot: [BTCTC] [ASICMINER-PT] 94 @ 3.641 = 342.254 BTC