Bitcoin’s Latest Profit-Taking Spree Was Driven By HODLers: Data

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On-chain data suggests the veterans of the Bitcoin network were the ones that took profits during the latest market selloff.

Older Bitcoin Groups Recently Realized A Large Amount Of Profit

In a post on X, the on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has revealed how profit-taking has been distributed among the various Bitcoin cohorts. The groups in question have been divided based on the age of their holdings.

The 1 year to 2 years cohort, for example, includes the holders who have been carrying their coins since between one and two years ago, without having involved them in a transaction even once.

Statistically, the longer an investor holds onto their tokens, the less likely they become to move them at any point. As such, cohorts on the older side include the more resolute hands.

The investors with a holding time under six months are termed as the “short-term holders.” Since these investors have a relatively low age, they often easily participate in selling.

According to Glassnode, however, this cohort who’s generally involved in profit-taking sprees hasn’t played much of a role during the recent profit-taking event in the sector.

So, who has been the culprit? The data of the Realized Profit by Age holds the answer. The Realized Profit measures, as its name suggests, the total amount of profit that the Bitcoin investors are realizing through their transactions.

The Realized Profit by Age is a modification of this indicator that separates the profit being realized by the different age cohorts. Below is the chart shared by the analytics firm that shows the trend in the metric specifically for the more aged side of the market (holding time greater than one year).

The trend in the Realized Profit for the older cohorts in the market | Source: Glassnode 

As displayed in the graph, the Bitcoin Realized Profit has recently shot up for the veteran groups of the network. During this profit-taking spree, the 3 years to 5 years investors realized the most gains at $849 million.

This cohort contains the investors who bought the cryptocurrency during the previous cycle. It would appear that the recent $100,000 prices finally proved enough for them to break their dormancy.

More interesting, however, is the cohort who took the second most profits: the 7 years to 10 years holders with a Realized Profit of $485 million. Coins that enter an age so old are generally assumed to be lost, either due to being forgotten or having their keys misplaced. Thus, it’s possible that these sales were made by investors who rediscovered old wallets.

Though, there is also a chance that there were some genuine HODLers sprinkled among these, in which case, they would have certainly deserved the fruits of their conviction.

The third largest Bitcoin profit-taker has been the 1 year to 2 years cohort with an indicator value of $445 million.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $109,300, up more than 3% over the past day.

The trend in the BTC price over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

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