Bitcoin Long-Term Holders See First Uptick Since April Lows: Bullish Sign?

On-chain data shows that the Bitcoin investors with a holding time greater than six months have seen an upward reversal in their supply for the first time in months.

As pointed out by Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards in a new post on X, the 6-month inactive supply has recently witnessed its first uptick since April. This part of the supply, covering tokens that have been dormant (that is, not involved in any transaction on the blockchain) since at least six months ago, belongs to investors popularly known as long-term holders (LTHs).

Statistically, the longer investors keep their coins dormant, the less likely they are to sell them in the future. As such, the LTH cohort with its relatively long holding time includes the resolute hands of the market. Despite their resilience, however, these investors have participated in selling during the past few months. Below is the chart shared by Edwards that shows the trend in the amount of supply dormant for longer than six months.

As is visible in the graph, the drawdown in the Bitcoin LTH supply changed for the worse during the cryptocurrency’s crash last month, indicating that the diamond hands took part in a significant amount of distribution. Since this selloff, however, the decline in the metric appears to have paused, at least for now. There has even been a small increase in the indicator recently, a potential sign of a shift in investor behavior.

Something to note is that while drops in the LTH supply can correspond to selling that’s occurring in the present, the same isn’t true in the case of an increase. An uptick in the metric isn’t a sign that members of the cohort are buying right now. Rather, it suggests some accumulation occurred six months ago, and now those coins have been held long enough to mature into the group.

That said, the trend is naturally still a positive sign for Bitcoin, as it implies HODLing behavior could be becoming more dominant on the network. The last time such a shift occurred was around the time of the cryptocurrency’s lows back in April.

What followed that LTH supply rise was BTC’s rally to new all-time highs (ATHs). Considering this, it only remains to be seen whether the latest shift toward long-term holding will lead to anything similar, or if the cryptocurrency’s decline is here to stay this time around.

Bitcoin briefly slipped under $84,000 on Monday, but its price has since seen some recovery as it’s now back at $87,500.