According to recent on-chain data, Bitcoin investors caused the price to fall to levels around $40,000 by panic selling. Data from Glassnode indicated that short-term investors sold off $2 billion worth of Bitcoin on December 12th.
As per TradingView data, Bitcoin experienced its largest daily drop in 2023, with a price decrease of 8.1%. In response to this drop, investors reduced their Bitcoin positions due to concerns about the market outlook.
Glassnode reported that short-term investors, who held Bitcoin for 155 days or less, transferred assets worth $1.93 billion on December 11th and $2.08 billion on December 12th to exchanges. These sales represent a trend involving both profitable and losing companies. The last time daily sales exceeded $2 billion was in June 2022, as a reaction to the collapse of the Celsius company.
Analyst James Van Straten from CryptoSlate highlighted the importance of short-term investor movements, stating that the $2 billion sale equated to a $1.1 billion loss, particularly affecting those who saw Bitcoin’s 150% increase in December and then bought in.
Glassnode analysts suggested that current on-chain indicators may indicate that short-term investors have filled the bull signals for now, and that profit-taking around the $45,000 level this month could point to demand saturation. The firm noted in its weekly newsletter that, after a strong start in 2023, the rally faced resistance, with short-term investors being a significant driving force.