Since September, short-term holders have acquired over 1.5 million bitcoin.

Short-term bitcoin (BTC) holders (STHs) have accumulated an impressive 1.5 million BTC since September, bringing their total holdings to over 4 million BTC, according to data from Glassnode.

This equates to an average of around 300,000 BTC added to their holdings each month. During this time, the price of bitcoin surged from $60,000 to $109,000 before retracing below the $100,000 mark. Glassnode classifies short-term holders as those who have held bitcoin for less than 155 days.

Historically, the price of bitcoin typically peaks when short-term holders exhaust their buying momentum, leading to a deceleration in price increases. This trend has been observed in prior bull cycles in 2013, 2017, and 2021.

However, during these past cycles, short-term holders held considerably more bitcoin at market peaks: 5 million BTC in 2013, 6.2 million BTC in 2017, and 4.6 million BTC in 2021. With the current level of 4 million BTC, STH holdings are relatively low, suggesting that new market entrants could continue accumulating BTC, which points to the possibility of further price growth in the ongoing cycle.

In contrast, long-term holders (LTHs), defined as those holding bitcoin for more than 155 days, have sold off 1.2 million BTC during this period, showing a phase of profit-taking after the recent price surge.

The ongoing selloff by LTHs has been a key factor behind bitcoin’s price stagnation since mid-November.