On-chain data suggests that selling pressure from Bitcoin miners and HODLers has dried up, a sign that could be positive for the asset.
Bitcoin LTHs Stop Selling, While Miner Distribution Slows
As analyst James Van Straten explains in a job on X, two BTC groups in particular have recently been a source of significant selling pressure in the market: the long-term holders (LTH) and minors.
LTHs refer to investors who have held their coins for more than 155 days. These holders are considered the resolute side of the industry because they rarely sell regardless of what is happening in the broader market.
The gathering towards the new absolute record this year, however, managed to entice even these HODLers to sell their coins and reap the profits they had earned during their long holding period.
According to Straten, however, the liquidation of these investors has recently subsided. “LTH has remained relatively stable in recent weeks as BTC moves, which is a good sign that profit-taking is easing,” notes the analyst.
However, unlike LTH, miners, which represent the other major source of selling pressure in the market, have continued to distribute in recent times. Nonetheless, as the chart below suggests, sales of these chain validators have at least declined in magnitude.
The value of the metric seems to have been becoming less negative in recent days | Source: @jvs_btc on X
The graph shows the monthly balance variation data for all miners. This cohort had become sellers in November and had maintained their sales at a more or less constant rate over the following months, as the variation in the monthly balance had remained around the same notable red values.
However, recently the metric has been trending higher and while it is still negative, the latest value is about the lowest since the sell-off began, with miners having only sold 1,300 BTC over the last 30 last days.
The analyst suggests that this group could even turn into a net accumulator soon, as “halving forces miners to become more efficient. Weak miners are purged and sell less on the market. THE reduce by half here it naturally refers to the periodic event on the BTC network where block rewards are permanently halved.
Block rewards are what miners receive for solving blocks on the network and are the main component of their income. These events therefore have important consequences for this group. Halvings happen about every four years and the last one happened just a few days ago.
With selling pressure from these two cohorts, which had recently been actively distributing, now drying up, Bitcoin may finally be able to regain its previous bullish surge, at least to some extent.
BTC Price
Bitcoin has recovered somewhat from its recent lows, but overall the asset is still consolidating within its recent range as it trades around $66,600.
The price of the asset has been stuck in sideways movement for a few weeks now | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image of Kanchanara on Unsplash.com, Glassnode.com, chart from TradingView.com
