Key facts
- Long-term Bitcoin holders have significantly decreased their selling activity.
- Over $43 billion worth of Bitcoin was sold by long-term holders in the past month.
- Bitcoin inflows to exchanges like Binance have fallen to multi-year lows.
- Institutional demand for Bitcoin has slowed, but spot Bitcoin ETFs are seeing renewed inflows.
- Bitcoin has experienced a price decline of over 6% in the past week.
Long-term Bitcoin holders, often referred to as 'OGs,' have significantly reduced their selling activity, reaching levels not seen in nearly two years. This slowdown in supply is being interpreted by some analysts as a bullish signal for the cryptocurrency market. Over the past month, these long-term holders have offloaded approximately 405,000 BTC, valued at over $43 billion. This wave of profit-taking occurred during a period that tested investor conviction and dampened demand.
However, analysts like Credible Crypto and Willy Woo suggest this selling is a normal part of bull market cycles, representing a transfer of coins from early investors to traditional finance and institutional buyers. They argue that inflows from these new buyers are absorbing the supply, preventing a market top. On-chain researcher Willy Woo noted that long-term holder supply naturally contracts in bull markets as coins move to new investors.
Despite the reduction in selling by OGs, Bitcoin has faced headwinds, with its price slipping over 6% in the past week. This decline is partly attributed to a slowdown in institutional demand, which has fallen below daily mining supply for the first time in seven months. Demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs has also cooled, with the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF seeing reduced weekly net inflows. Analysts like Julio Moreno of CryptoQuant point to this imbalance of rising supply amid weakening demand as a reason for the price decline.
Further data indicates a significant drop in Bitcoin inflows into exchanges like Binance, reaching levels not observed since 2020. This collapse in exchange inflows suggests a broader slowdown in selling activity. The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs is also cited as a factor, as a growing portion of Bitcoin activity now flows through these products, reducing visible BTC movement on traditional exchanges. US Spot Bitcoin ETFs have recently recorded substantial net inflows, indicating increasing demand through these channels.