Bitcoin slips to $113K, bargain hunters step in while Ethereum outperforms

Bitcoin bargain hunters could soon take up positions in the market, buoyed by investor behavior metrics that reveal a change in supply dynamics that have taken the coin’s price down to $113,000. 

Data from blockchain analytics firms Glassnode and Cryptoquant suggest there’s a mixed market sentiment, with opportunistic buying almost balancing sustained profit-taking and whale activity. Large holders are selling their holdings in the latest price dip.

According to Glassnode’s “Supply by Investor Behavior” metric tracking the past five days, coins held by first-time buyers increased by 1.0% to 4.93 million BTC. This spells the return of bargain hunters, investors who wait for assets to fall before purchasing, hoping to secure value at lower levels.

Meanwhile, conviction buyers, investors with strong holding intent and optimism that a token’s price will go up, expanded their positions by 10%, going up from 933,000 BTC to 1.03 million BTC. 

Conviction Buyers rose +10.1% (933K → 1.03M $BTC) over 5 days. Yet compared to April’s surge, engagement looks muted – suggesting this dip is too shallow for strategic buying, or investors remain hesitant. pic.twitter.com/ipfONrj7BF

— glassnode (@glassnode) August 19, 2025

Glassnode’s analysis mentioned the surge is more restrained compared with April and July. This could mean the price dip is too shallow for strategic buyers to enter, or investors are hesitant to buy and are waiting for a clearer price direction.

Loss sellers and profit takers are trending

Some investors may be accumulating tokens, but those exiting positions at a loss, also known as loss sellers, have increased their activity by 37.8% over the past five days, from 63,000 BTC to 87,000 BTC. Even though the number of lost sales has gone up, realized losses are lower compared to tallies seen earlier this year, suggesting panic selling is limited.

Profit-taking among holders has also gone up 5.4%, jumping from 1.73 million BTC to 1.83 million BTC, the largest uptick recorded in 2025. Most investors saw the recent rally as an opening to lock in gains and move against the wishes of those betting on further upside.

Analysts at CryptoQuant believe that if the market absorbs these sales quickly, it could resemble past price corrections that preceded rebounds. If not, the pressure could be high enough to break the upward momentum of the broader crypto market, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Still, the weakness is not isolated to the top two ranking coins. Market observers mentioned the weakness in market breadth across Nasdaq stocks too, within what many still see as a longer-term bull run. 

Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana all recently entered oversold territory on the Relative Strength Index (RSI). Investors may deem caution warranted, but the declines may also become a chance for the market to buy the dip.

Ethereum strengthens against Bitcoin

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has been under pressure in the last five days, falling back to $4,200, down more than 12% from the 2025 high of $4,768. Analysts on social platforms predict the second-largest crypto is testing a breakout zone near $4,400, ETH’s psychological resistance level since March 2024.

Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said that Ethereum’s ability to hold above $4,100, and if capital inflows into the asset are strong, could push the token beyond its ATH. A break below this level, however, could wipe out all of its recent gains and accelerate it downwards to $3,500.

However, Ethereum has shown more relative strength in its performance against Bitcoin after hitting its lowest exchange rate in six years this past April. The ETH/BTC pair now trades at 0.0368, its highest level since early 2025, though still below targets favored by many Ether supporters.

On spot markets, weekly ETH/BTC trading volumes reached an all-time high ratio of 2.71, meaning Ethereum’s spot volume was nearly three times that of Bitcoin last week. 

In derivatives, the ETH/BTC perpetual futures open interest ratio surged to 0.71, the highest in 14 months. Binance recorded more than $6 billion in daily Bitcoin spot trading volume on August 18, one of the largest spikes of the month. 

The uptrend in Binance activity took place even as whale deposits to the exchange dropped. Whale-to-exchange flows fell from $6.4 billion to $5.0 billion between August 11-17, a reduction of roughly $1.3 billion.

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