Bitcoin price has struggled to maintain stability above $102,000 in recent days, and data shows this is due to a clear imbalance between selling pressure and new demand.
On-chain data from CryptoQuant reveals that although long-term holders have been actively taking profits, the market is showing limited capacity to absorb their sell-offs. This is in contrast to previous phases of the uptrend, where increased demand was able to offset increased long-term shareholder activity.
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High long term bearer selling pressure mirrors past bull cycles
Data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, which Initially shared by Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, shows an interesting change in dynamics among Bitcoin holder activity that could shape the next step for the cryptocurrency.
Julio Moreno explained that selling by long-term holders (LTH) is a normal pattern in bull markets as investors take profits when Bitcoin approaches or exceeds all-time highs. CryptoQuant data shows that total 30-day LTH spending, represented by the purple line in the chart image below, has been increasing since early October.
This behavior follows previous bull rally phases, such as those seen in early and late 2024, when profit-taking coincided with expanding demand, thus pushing Bitcoin to new record prices.
The chart accompanying Moreno’s post shows green areas representing periods of clear positive demand growth and red areas indicating contraction. During January-March 2024 and November-December 2024, LTH sell-offs occurred as demand expanded.
Long-term spending of Bitcoin holders
But since October 2025, this trend has reversed. Even as LTH sales increased, demand entered the red zone, indicating the market’s weak ability to absorb this selling pressure. This coincided with Bitcoin struggling to maintain its position above $102,000, indicating that price growth may be losing momentum.
Continued weak demand may delay the next rally
Moreno noted that the critical factor to watch is not just the extent of long-term shareholder selling, but whether demand growth can keep pace.
When demand is strong, an influx of supply from long-term holders often leads to healthy consolidation before prices rise again. In contrast, when demand declines, the result tends to be prolonged corrections or sideways movement.
Much of this demand is now coming from spot bitcoin ETFs, which have seen inflows slow sharply. Data From Soso Value It shows that US-based spot bitcoin ETFs ended last week with net outflows of $558.44 million on Friday, November 7, one of the largest single-day outflows in weeks.
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Unless clear demand for Bitcoin begins to recover in the coming weeks and the LTH sell-off continues, this could continue to impact price action and postpone the next phase of Bitcoin’s rally. In this case, we may continue to see Bitcoin consolidate between $101,000 and $103,000 for the rest of November.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $101,655, down 0.6% over the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
The post Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Selloffs Fail To Be Reabsorbed As Demand Weakens first appeared on Investorempires.com.
