Price underperformance prompts long-term bitcoin holders to offload positions

Long-term bitcoin holders ramp up selling as price lags traditional markets

Long-term bitcoin holders are selling at the fastest pace in five months as bitcoin trails broader financial markets.

Investors who have held bitcoin (BTC $83,148.69) for at least 155 days—a group often considered the most conviction-driven—offloaded roughly 143,000 BTC over the past 30 days, according to Glassnode data. This mirrors a previous peak in August, when about 170,000 BTC were sold over a similar period, ahead of a record-high price in October.

Bitcoin’s underperformance compared with assets such as gold and silver, which are trading near or at record highs, highlights stress in the crypto market and raises the potential for further downside or extended consolidation.

The October peak followed a widely observed four-year cycle linked to bitcoin’s mining reward halving, which last occurred in April 2024. Historically, these cycles see a peak in the fourth quarter, followed by prolonged drawdowns and consolidation phases.

At the October top, 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, temporarily easing selling pressure. Bitcoin rallied to around $97,000, though roughly 2 million BTC are now held at a loss.

Despite recent sales, long-term holders still control approximately 14.5 million BTC, underscoring that reductions from this cohort remain a meaningful headwind for the cryptocurrency’s price in the near term.