Bitcoin long-term holders locked in over $2 billion in profit in one day — but not everyone is interested in selling BTC.
In the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, “The Week Onchain,” analytics firm Glassnode revealed a split between Bitcoin’s “diamond hands.”
Bitcoin LTHs “potentially waiting for higher prices”
Bitcoin (BTC) investors saw unrealized profits soar across the board during the recent BTC price surge to almost $100,000.
While speculators have fallen victim to various liquidation events, old hands have begun taking risks off the table by cashing in long-held coins. As Cointelegraph reported, Nov. 22 saw a record $443 million of profit realized across the hodler spectrum.
Bitcoin entity-adjusted LTH realized profit (screenshot). Source: Glassnode
While this led to concerns that selling may outpace new capital inflows, including from the United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Glassnode said that under the hood, the “real” Bitcoin veterans are less interested in reducing their BTC exposure.
“Having established a significant uptick in Long-Term Holder profit-taking, we can increase the granularity of this assessment by scrutinizing the composition of the supply sold,” it said.
Examining cumulative realized profit delineated by age group, researchers confirmed that profit-taking has broadly been confined to entities hodling coins between six and 12 months.
“Coins aged between 6 months and 1 year dominate the prevailing sell-side pressure, accounting for 35.3% of the total,” they reported.
“The dominance of coins aged 6m-1y highlights that the majority of spending has originated from coins acquired relatively recently, highlighting that more tenured investors are remaining measured and potentially waiting patiently for higher prices.”
Bitcoin cumulative realized profit by age (screenshot). Source: Glassnode
One theory about the identity of such investors involves institutional buyers “who accumulated after the ETFs launch and planned to ride only the next market wave higher.”
ETF, MicroStrategy investors get reality check
The ETFs themselves show continued sensitivity to short-term BTC price fluctuations.
Related: Who cares about $100K? 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week
Data shows that the past two trading days have seen combined net outflows of more than $550 million.
US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
During that time, BTC/USD fell from near all-time highs above $99,000 to local lows of around $90,800, Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirm.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Equities buyers also felt the pinch after increasing exposure to business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, the company with the largest Bitcoin corporate treasury. It fell 35% from its peak on Nov. 21 in one of its worst four-day losing streaks in history, while still adding to its BTC reserves.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
