Long-term Bitcoin holders continue to dump BTC amid long wait for $100,000

Bitcoin faces resistance near $97,000 as long-term holders reduce their balances and network activity declines.

Bitcoin’s efforts to break above $100,000 faced strong resistance from bears, leading to increased volatility over the past few days. On Monday, Bitcoin was rejected near $97,500 and fell by around $3,000 in a few hours before stabilizing slightly above $95,000.

Today, Bitcoin continued its downward trend, falling 1.9% to $93,940 on Tuesday. This price drop is accompanied by a noticeable decline in long-term Bitcoin holdings, making the market outlook more complex.

Declining long-term Bitcoin holdings

Recent data from IntoTheBlock shows a clear trend: long-term Bitcoin holders have gradually reduced their holdings. Currently, these holders – defined as wallets that have held Bitcoin for more than 155 days – control around 12.45 million BTC, the lowest level since July 2022.

This represents a nearly 10% decline in long-term holder balances this cycle, a less severe decline compared to previous market corrections. In 2021, long-term holders reduced their balance by 15%; in 2017 the decline reached 26%.

This trend suggests that Bitcoin holders are either selling for a profit or moving their holdings to alternative storage options such as cold wallets or exchanges.

Long-term Bitcoin holders are gradually reducing their balances and now hold 12.45 million BTC – the lowest level since July 2022.

So far, this decline has been less pronounced than in previous cycles. Long-term holder balances are down 9.8% this cycle, compared to 15% in 2021 and 26% in… pic.twitter.com/eA5Cckrgs4

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) December 3, 2024

Shrinking network activity

In addition to the decline in long-term holdings, Bitcoin’s network activity has also dropped significantly. IntoTheBlock’s Data highlights that the number of new Bitcoin addresses has decreased by 5.94% in the last seven days. Active addresses, which represent daily user transactions on the network, decreased by 1.25%.

Additionally, there was a 10.50% decrease in addresses with zero balances over the same period. These declines in network activity suggest that Bitcoin may be experiencing user fatigue, which could be due to ongoing market corrections or a general lack of interest.

The US government is moving Bitcoin amid a passive market

Related NewsAfter a nearly four-month pause, the US government has resumed Bitcoin transfers. On Monday, a government-linked wallet transferred 19,800 BTC to a Coinbase Prime wallet, valued at $1.92 billion at the time of the transfer.

Despite some skepticism about the move, analysts say suggest that the transfer is related to custody measures rather than asset sales. The US Marshals Service, which oversees Bitcoin-related assets seized by the government, selected Coinbase Prime as its custody provider earlier this year.