Bitcoin has retraced back to the $71,000 level, as on-chain data shows profit-taking behavior among investors has once again witnessed a spike.
Bitcoin Realized Profit Crossed $20M/Hour During Rally
In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has talked about the latest trend in the Bitcoin Realized Profit, which is an indicator that measures, as its name suggests, the total amount of profit that BTC addresses/investors are realizing through their transactions.
Below is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows how the 24-hour simple moving average (SMA) of this Bitcoin metric has fluctuated over the last few months.
Looks like the value of the indicator has plunged in recent days | Source: Glassnode on X
As is visible in the graph, the 24-hour SMA of the Bitcoin Realized Profit has seen a couple of spikes of a notable scale during the last few days. The spikes came as BTC recovered from its recent lows and broke back above the $73,000 level. Thus, it would appear that investors took the recovery opportunity to exit with profits.
During the spikes, profit-taking exceeded $20 million per hour. Since this investor is selling, BTC has retraced back below $71,000, indicating that the profit realization likely played a role in the rally topping out.
This is actually a pattern that has been witnessed a few times during the recent consolidation range already. “Every approach to the $70k–$ 80k band faces thin liquidity and profit-taking pressure, capping the bounce,” noted the analytics firm. Given that the latest rally has also been obstructed by profit-taking, it would appear that fresh liquidity capable of absorbing the selling pressure is still absent from the market.
The continued sideways movement from Bitcoin has meant that a chunk of the userbase has remained stuck underwater. As Glassnode has pointed out in another X post, a huge number of addresses on the BTC blockchain continue to be in loss.
The data for the Number of Addresses in Loss for the BTC network | Source: Glassnode on X
As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Number of Addresses in Loss, an indicator tracking wallets holding coins at a net unrealized loss, has seen some temporary declines alongside price surges, but as BTC has failed to maintain any recovery, the indicator has kept touching high levels.
Currently, there are 13.5 million addresses sitting in a loss. “This indicates that a meaningful portion of the network acquired coins above the current spot price,” explained the analytics firm. In the scenario that BTC’s current pullback continues, the metric could reach back to the highs above 16 million from earlier in the year.
BTC Price
Bitcoin is back at $70,800 following its pullback over the weekend.
The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
