BTC traders realized $500M an hour during several periods of selling

Traders accelerated their profit-taking in the past few days, realizing $500M an hour in profits. Based on Glassnode data, traders are trying to lock in gains while reassessing the next move for BTC. 

Traders are profiting from the BTC market, using each recent recovery. As BTC regained $105,000 and showed signs of recovery, traders still sold to lock in recent profits. According to Glassnode data, profit-taking accelerated to $500M an hour, with three major periods of selling for the last 24 hours. 

Based on holders waves heatmap, wallets holding coins for less than a month and between 3-6 months reduced their balances, while all other cohorts retained or slightly increased their balances. Most of the sellers have realized profits based on the adjusted Spending Output Profit Ratio. Glassnode data showed the average BTC sold in the past few days had a 16% profit.

In the past few weeks, coins flowed into addresses holding 100 to 1,000 BTC, while larger cohorts with over 1,000 and 10,000 BTC sold off their coins. 

Many large holders (‘whales’) already realized profits during previous peaks, and the current selling is likely from small, speculative wallets offloading BTC on the open market. 

The recent rounds of selling also met with enough buyers aiming to store physical coins. BTC is showing signs of scarcity on the spot market, and even derivative exchanges see an outflow of reserves. 

Spot exchanges carry 1.023M BTC, the lowest reserves since 2022. The remaining 1.30M are on derivative exchanges, with a steep slide in the past month. As with previous local peaks, BTC traders have shown more rational behavior, aiming to lock in gains. At the same time, spot BTC accumulation continues, driven by the recent trend of growing corporate treasuries.

BTC still gets a boost from derivative traders

The recent trader behavior follows a pullback of the fear and greed index, down to 64 points from 74 points the previous week. Realizing profits is not unusual even for whale wallets, and selling originated even from the ETF wallets of BlackRock. 

Despite the selling, BTC still had the energy to rally as high as $106,559. BTC remains range-bound, with potential for volatility in either direction.

The recent profit-taking also shows the market remains relatively resilient, and derivative trading continues independent of spot market activities. 

BTC’s open interest on derivative markets increased by $1.2B in the past day, rising again toward $34B after a series of liquidations. In the past few hours, the trend has been toward shorting the asset, though long positions still dominate over 53% of open interest. An accumulation of short positions may also lead to a rally to liquidate the short sellers. 

The BTC derivative market is also closely watched for volatility, based on the position of risky trader James Wynn. His position, with a liquidation price of $104,980, is at risk for even a small downward move, especially driven by organized selling.

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