Novice Bitcoin Whales Capitulate, Old-Timers Remain Silent

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According to on-chain data, new whales on the Bitcoin network have been feeling losses recently, while old whales remain on the sidelines.

Bitcoin faces losses due to novice whale selling

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn talked about the latest trends in Bitcoin whales’ P&L realization behavior. A “whale” broadly refers to a BTC investor who holds at least 1,000 tokens in their balance.

At current exchange rates, the cutoff for this cohort is equivalent to $91.6 million, which is significant. Therefore, this group represents the very rich in the market and can have some influence.

Whales can be divided into two subgroups based on retention time. Investors of this size who have purchased coins within the past 155 days are known as short-term holders (STH) or New Whales. Similarly, whales with longer retention times are called long-term holders (LTH) or old whales.

Here, the graph shared by Maartunn shows the trend in net profits and losses that these Bitcoin whale groups have realized through sales over the past few months.

As shown in the graph above, Bitcoin New Whales has recently shown a spike in loss realizations. The group’s behind-the-scenes selloff comes as the price of cryptocurrencies has fallen.

New Whales include people who are inexperienced in the market and tend to panic easily when faced with volatility. The quality of this group appears to have been maintained even in this crash.

The Old Whales, on the other hand, are considered to represent the resolute side of the network. The chart shows that there has been recent loss selling from these large dormant companies, but the magnitude is small compared to New Whale’s capitulation.

The fact that Old Whales’ presence has remained relatively unnoticeable throughout the bearish shift and subsequent rally may be a signal worth paying attention to.

Speaking of recovery, Bitcoin’s rally means its price has risen above its key on-chain cost-based level. As shared by analyst Ali Martinez in an X post, the Bitcoin UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) suggests that the last large purchase occurred at $84,500.

On-chain analysis considers a strong demand zone below the spot price to be a potential support point for Bitcoin. Similarly, levels above it are assumed to be the source of resistance. One such major level is at $112,300.