On-chain data shows that major Bitcoin holders have participated in a remarkable amount of loss realization lately, a sign of capitulation.
Bitcoin sharks and whales see high values in terms of realized losses
In a new after at The ‘realized loss’ here refers to an indicator that, as the name suggests, measures the total loss that BTC holders realize through their transactions.
In the context of the current topic, the version of the metric of interest is the one that tracks transfers associated with two specific investor cohorts: the sharks and the whales. These groups cover the range of 100 to 1,000 BTC and 1,000 to 10,000 BTC respectively. As such, the only investors who would qualify for the sharks and whales would be the hands with a lot of money.
Lately, the market as a whole has been experiencing some pain as bearish momentum has dominated the sector, leading to loss-making sell-offs among investors. The sharks and whales showed no different behavior, as the graph for their Realized Loss shows.
As shown in the chart above, the Bitcoin sharks and whales have observed that the 7-day simple moving average (SMA) of their combined realized loss has recently been at a significant level.
The chart shows that realized losses rose to particularly high levels following the November and February price crashes, indicating a pronounced degree of market pain surrounding the events.
Today, the 7-day SMA of the Bitcoin Realized Loss for the Sharks and Whales is worth over $200 million per day. “Typical capitulation behavior of larger entities,” the analytics firm noted.
Historically, major capitulation phases have tended to pave the way for bottoms, as coins tend to transfer from weak hands to more determined entities during such events. It now remains to be seen whether major investors’ losses have been extreme enough to hit a low yet.
In other news, Bitcoin has almost reached the halfway point of its next halving, as Glassnode highlighted in another X. after. Halvings are events that permanently halve BTC’s block grant, the compensation miners receive for adding the next block to the chain.
Halving events occur approximately every four years, with the next such event currently expected to occur in April 2028. Bitcoin will reach the halfway point of this event at block 945,000. The chain is currently located on block 943.495.
BTC price
Bitcoin has continued to consolidate lately as its price trades around $67,000.