Bitcoin [BTC] Short-Term Holders Have Been Taking Profits

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen substantial gains in the past week, pushing most short-term holders (STHs) into profitable margins after a period of being underwater.

As a result, over the past 10 days, STHs have been selling their Bitcoin with significant profit. This is evident in the Short-Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) holding above 1 over this period.

However, the rising profitability for this cohort means these holders are taking the opportunity to make profits while exiting their positions.

STHs dominated outflows as demand momentum dropped sharply

This selling pressure from STH has spiked tremendously, as evidenced by the 30-day Demand Momentum.

This momentum indicator has declined to settle at -480k BTC as per CryptoQuant. A negative value here suggests that short-term holders are offloading more Bitcoin compared to long-term holders.

In fact, short-term holders’ Inflow into Exchanges is dominating the market.

Looking at Exchange Inflow Age Bands, we can see that those holding BTC from 0 days to one month have sent over 26k BTC into exchanges over the past day. This trend has been witnessed over the past week.

Having said that, the selling wasn’t subtle.

BTC’s Spot Volume Delta (7DA SMA) flipped deeply negative over the past three days. The net value stood at -301 million—an unusually bearish figure.

Such a significant value implies that aggressive sellers are dominating the market, and Spot Demand is significantly weakening. This indicates that the market is experiencing significant profit-taking activity where buyers seem to get exhausted, and a trend reversal could be on the horizon.

The recent surge in profit-taking has caused the Profit-Taker RSI (7D) to spike to 82. This increase indicates heightened realized profits and growing sell-side pressure as Bitcoin prices rise.

Currently, sellers, particularly short-term holders, are dominating the market. In contrast, long-term holders are not selling and appear to be holding back.

What this means for BTC

Bitcoin now sits at a crossroads.

The divergence between STHs exiting and LTHs holding firm pointed to consolidation. With LTHs absorbing the sell pressure, BTC seemed likely to range between $92K and $95K for now.

For a break above $96K, STH selling would need to ease—otherwise, any bullish momentum may stall.