Bitcoin Rally Stalls As 60,000 BTC From STHs Hits Exchanges

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin short-term holders reacted to the recent price surge by sending a significant amount of BTC to centralized exchanges.

As pointed out by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn in an X post, the Bitcoin short-term holders have recently participated in a notable amount of exchange deposit activity. The “short-term holders” (STHs) refer to BTC investors who purchased their coins within the past 155 days. This cohort represents the weak-minded side of the market that tends to be reactive to volatility.

Since the cryptocurrency’s spot price has seen a recovery surge in the last few days, the STHs could be expected to have reacted to it. And indeed, the exchange inflow data would confirm it.

Below is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in the 24-hour sum of the exchange inflows being made by Bitcoin STHs over the last few months.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin STH exchange inflows saw their 24-hour sum hit a sharp peak during the asset’s surge toward the $76,000 level. This suggests that the new investors transferred large sums to centralized exchanges. Generally, one of the main reasons why holders deposit their coins to these platforms is for selling-related purposes, so a spike in exchange inflows can be a sign of elevated selling pressure in the market.

During the recent deposit spree, STH inflows hit 61,000 BTC (worth nearly $4.5 billion at the current exchange rate), which is the highest level since the selloff at the start of February. The February exchange inflow activity followed a sharp crash in the cryptocurrency sector, so it corresponded to panic selling from the STHs. Meanwhile, the latest spike likely represents a push toward profit-taking from these investors instead.

In terms of overall exchange inflows, deposit activity hit 11,000 BTC per hour alongside the rally, as CryptoQuant has highlighted in a post on its official X handle.

As displayed in the above chart, this spike in the hourly Bitcoin exchange inflow was the largest since December, exceeding the peak from this year’s price crash. Thus, it would appear that the STHs aren’t the only ones who have been looking at the rally as an opportunity to exit.

Since the increase in exchange deposit activity has appeared, BTC has seen its price rally stall, indicating that the selling pressure has been strong enough to neutralize the bullish momentum. So far, however, the asset hasn’t outright changed direction, so it only remains to be seen how the market will develop in the coming days.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $74,400, up more than 4% over the last week.