Bitcoin holders' unrealized profit has reached a new peak of $1.41 trillion

Bitcoin investors now have $1.41 trillion in unrealized profit, according to Glassnode. The on-chain analytics platform disclosed this, noting that it is an all-time high in unrealized gains.

According to Glassnode, this is the highest paper gains for Bitcoin investors, surpassing the $1.3 trillion in November 2024. Based on this milestone, analysts believe there could be distribution pressure for Bitcoin if prices continue to increase, leading to holders selling.

They wrote:

“This massive paper gain concentration sets the stage for potential future distribution pressure if prices continue higher.”

Interestingly, the Glassnode analysts appear to be doubling down on this point based on the new level of unrealized profits. They noted that Bitcoin’s unrealized profits as a percentage of its market cap have passed the +2σ band.

This level is historically tied to market euphoria, similar to the previous all-time highs. Thus, it usually comes with increased selling pressure as holders are likely to sell off and take profits.

As to whether there could be sell-offs to take profits, it does not help that long-term holders control the majority of the BTC supply. Glassnode data also noted that these long-term holders currently have 53% of BTC despite their recent distributions.

Thus, any further price increase could reignite distributions, pushing BTC further down and causing additional volatility. However, that has been changing, with 223,602 BTC moving from long-term to short-term holders in the past 30 days.

Is Bitcoin at its market top?

However, not everyone believes that the $1.4 trillion in unrealized profit is significant enough to have any major impact on BTC’s performance in the short term. Crypto analyst Rezo noted that it is important to consider context, even though $1.41 trillion might sound massive.

According to him, Bitcoin’s current market price versus realized price (MVRV) is 2.26, which is far below the historical cycle top of around 3.7 and above. Thus, he does not expect any distribution yet.

He said:

“We’re not even close to distribution territory yet. 2017 and 2021 both peaked above 12x for long-term holders.”

Although several other experts agree with this opinion, some also question whether it is right to base any expectation on historical peaks. On-chain analyst Barış Kardeş noted that doing so could give some investors a false sense of security similar to what happened in the 2021 cycle.

That's a valid perspective, and using relative metrics like MVRV is definitely more insightful than looking at absolute numbers alone.

However, I'm cautious about anchoring expectations to historical peaks. This pattern feels eerily similar to the misplaced confidence in the… pic.twitter.com/FknOCAj6H1

— Barış Kardeş (@KardesBaris) July 30, 2025

Interestingly, any projected distribution might not have much impact on the BTC price. The flagship asset recently absorbed a sell-off of 80,000 BTC over the weekend without much impact on its price.

Bitcoin adoption continues to grow

Meanwhile, more signs of crypto adoption in the US are emerging even as Bitcoin and other tokens significantly decline in value. Several developments have happened in the past few days, including the US government publishing its first digital assets report.

The report, which is based on President Donald Trump’s executive order, stated that the government will work on strategies to allow it to acquire more BTC for the strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also posted videos supporting crypto and recently released an op-ed in the Washington Post discussing the “Roadmap to make America a crypto superpower.”

All these developments are happening in less than 24 hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved in-kind creation and redemption for the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. However, there have not been any significant price movements.

Despite all these positive developments, Bitcoin’s performance over the last 24 hours remains in the red, likely due to interest cooling down. Data from CryptoQuant shows that the futures market for BTC, along with the rest of the market, has cooled after a short-term overheating phase.

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