Long-term bitcoin holders ramp up selling as price lags broader markets
Long-term bitcoin holders are selling at the fastest pace in five months as bitcoin continues to lag traditional financial assets.
Investors who have held bitcoin (BTC $83,148.69) for at least 155 days—a group often seen as the most conviction-driven—offloaded roughly 143,000 BTC over the past 30 days, according to Glassnode. This mirrors a prior peak in August, when around 170,000 BTC were sold in a 30-day span, ahead of bitcoin’s record-high price in October.
Bitcoin’s underperformance relative to assets like gold and silver, which are trading near all-time highs, signals stress in the crypto market and raises the risk of further downside or extended consolidation.
The October peak aligned with a four-year cycle tied to bitcoin’s mining reward halving, which last occurred in April 2024. Historically, these cycles see fourth-quarter peaks followed by prolonged drawdowns and consolidation phases.
At the October high, nearly all long-term holders—roughly 15 million BTC—were in profit. After a 36% decline through late November, long-term holders briefly returned to net accumulation from late December into early January, easing selling pressure and supporting a rally to about $97,000. Currently, around 2 million BTC are held at a loss.
Despite the recent uptick in selling, long-term holders still control roughly 14.5 million BTC, indicating that reductions from this cohort remain a key potential headwind for bitcoin’s price in the near term.
