Bitcoin [BTC]at the time of writing, was trading at $67.7K, after recovering from the low of $66.2K on Tuesday, March 31. While the price remained above the $65.6K asking zone established in early March, bulls are struggling to push the price even higher.
Now Bitcoin has been trading well below the price realized by the short-term holder for months. In fact, crypto analyst Axel Adler Jr revealed that the price realized by STH was almost $85.8K, while the market price of BTC was only $67.7K.
Furthermore, the STH price fell to -5.35% year-over-year, something that had not happened since the 2022 bear market.
The combination of short-term losses and negative YoY STH realized price simply reinforces the idea of weak demand and bear market conditions.
The analyst also noted that the short-term holder’s P/L has been below 1 since December 2025. In other words, STHs have been selling Bitcoin at a loss for months now.
Again, longer periods during which the SOPR remained below 1 were representative bear market conditions. The press time value of 0.989 indicated moderate selling pressure.
As long as the SOPR remains below 1 and the market price is far from the realized price, any Bitcoin price increase would be sold as market participants attempt to cut their losses or exit the market at breakeven levels.
The pressure on whale sales is decreasing
Another analyst, Darkfost, noted in a post on CryptoQuant Insights that whales were particularly active in February and early March. At the time, Bitcoin was trading between $64,000 and $69,000.
The respite rally to $76,000 in March was accompanied by reduced inflows of Bitcoin whales into Binance. The 30-day inflow fell from 4,000 BTC to 1,600 BTC, indicating a slowdown in selling pressure from the largest whales.
The biggest market players have taken a wait-and-see approach in recent weeks, but Bitcoin’s recent pullback below $70,000 sparked a new wave of selling from the rest.
The seven-day moving average of Coin Days Destroyed’s inflows into the exchange have also increased over the past week. Higher values indicate that more long-term sellers may be positioning themselves to sell their BTC.
It should be noted here that CDD inflows were well below the panicky levels of February. However, it has increased slightly in the past week.
Final summary
- Short-term holdings could be largely underwater, with the SOPR showing that there is still moderate selling pressure from this cohort.
- The slowdown in whale inflows indicated that the largest market players may be taking a wait-and-see approach.