Bitcoin Faces Largest Discount to Record High Since U.S. Election

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading 13% below its all-time high of around $108,000, marking the largest discount since the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Since then, the cryptocurrency has fluctuated several times at around 10% below its record price, a level many investors view as a correction.

The selling pressure is primarily coming from long-term holders (LTHs), a group defined by Glassnode as investors who have held Bitcoin for at least 155 days. These holders tend to sell when prices rise, having accumulated Bitcoin during market dips.

Glassnode data shows that LTHs began distributing a significant amount of Bitcoin about a week ago. Since then, they’ve accelerated their selling, reducing their total holdings from 14.2 million BTC in mid-September to 13.2 million BTC. On Thursday, LTHs offloaded nearly 70,000 BTC, the fourth-largest one-day sell-off of the year, according to the data.

For every seller, however, there is a buyer. In this case, short-term holders (STHs) have accumulated approximately 1.3 million BTC during the same period, absorbing coins from the LTHs and beyond.

Recently, the balance has shifted, with LTHs increasingly looking to sell, while short-term traders are less active in buying. This has contributed to Bitcoin’s price decline to around $94,500.

With 19.8 million BTC currently in circulation and an additional 2.8 million BTC on exchanges, the amount of Bitcoin held on exchanges has been declining. In recent months, around 200,000 BTC has left exchanges.

Monitoring these shifts in long-term and short-term holders, along with Bitcoin’s circulating supply, will be key to predicting price movements in the coming days.