The weekend that just passed was one of the worst for the cryptocurrency industry as we saw unusual volatility that pushed the price of the first cryptocurrency below $18,000, making Bitcoin even more unprofitable for investors and pushing the realized loss value to a new ATH.
Reportedly, over $7.325 billion worth of BTC losses had been tracked by on-chain aggregators. A large portion of investors spent their coins previously gained at higher prices. Such a large percentage of investors at a loss could be a worrying sign and may aggravate previously existing panic on the market.
Unfortunately, the main source of the sell-off was long-term investors as they contributed around 180,000 BTC at prices far below $23,000, pushing the price of the first cryptocurrency below the level of the 2017 all-time high.
The coins dumped on the market represented around 1.3% of their total holdings. After dropping a portion of their LTH portfolio, their holdings returned to levels of September last year.
By looking at the profit and loss of LTG wallets that sent money to centralized exchanges for realization, we may see direct signs of capitulation as they were rapidly selling their funds, even at mind-blowing losses of 75%. Such irrational behavior of long-term holders is most likely tied to the panic on a market that now expects Bitcoin to go lower than $15,000 for whatever reason.
Previously, U.Today covered issues that Bitcoin and crypto miners are facing: with rising electricity costs and the rapidly dropping value of most cryptocurrencies, miners have no other choice but to sell their assets at a loss and turn off their machines.