Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading 13% below its all-time high of around $108,000, the most since President-elect Donald Trump won the US election in early November.
Since then, the largest cryptocurrency has spent several periods 10% below the record, a level some investors call a correction.
The selling pressure originates from long-term holders (LTH), which Glassnode defines as investors who have held bitcoin for at least 155 days. They tend to sell to strengthen prices after accumulating bitcoins when prices are depressed.
LTHs were already distributing a significant amount of BTC about a week ago, previous CoinDesk research showed. They have since picked up the pace and reduced their total holdings to around 13.2 million BTC from around 14.2 million in mid-September.
They sold nearly 70,000 BTC on Thursday, the fourth-largest one-day liquidation this year, according to Glassnode data.
On the other hand, for every seller there must be a buyer. In this case, it is the short-term holders (STH) who have accumulated approximately 1.3 million BTC in the same time period. The number indicates that they collected coins from the LTHs and more.
In recent days, the narrative has changed and LTHs are looking to sell more than short-term traders are looking to buy. That imbalance has contributed to the price drop to around $94,500.
There are 19.8 million tokens in circulation and another 2.8 million on exchanges, although that balance continues to fall: around 200,000 bitcoins have left the exchanges in recent months.
These cohorts are key to monitoring bitcoin price activity in the coming days.
