TLDR
The latest report from K33 Research indicates that the cryptocurrency market may be near a structural turning point. This is because the Bitcoin sell-side pressure exerted by long-term holders (LTH) is showing signs of exhaustion.
The firm’s head of research, Vetle Lunde, highlights that since the beginning of 2024, an extraordinary amount of assets stored in wallets years old has been mobilized, representing an unprecedented strategic profit-taking phase.
The mobilized capital is equivalent to approximately 1.6 million BTC, but these movements are not related to simple technical restructuring or security updates.
In this regard, K33 maintains that this is direct selling facilitated by the deep liquidity now offered by U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs and the growing demand from corporate treasuries.
Unlike the 2017 cycle, which was driven by altcoin speculation, the current Bitcoin sell-side pressure allows large investors to liquidate positions at six-figure price levels.
In this year alone, it is estimated that approximately $300 billion worth of Bitcoin—which had remained dormant for more than a year—has been reactivated. Although this process has hindered price performance in 2025, it is successfully reducing ownership concentration and establishing new cost bases across the market.
In summary, this supply metric is expected to stabilize. “With 20% of BTC’s supply reactivated over the past two years, we expect on-chain Bitcoin sell-side pressure to approach saturation,” the analyst stated.
The firm projects that the supply from old wallets will begin to recover and will end 2026 above the current level of 12.16 million BTC. Furthermore, year-end portfolio rebalancing could attract new inflows in January, allowing the asset to recover ground lost to other asset classes.
