Key Takeaways
Why Are Bitcoin’s Losses Accelerating This Week?
Short-term holders dumped 148,000 BTC at a loss, while sharks recorded -53,700,000 BTC, creating intense selling pressure.
Where should BTC traders look from here?
BTC Risks a Drop to $94,000 Unless STH Selling Slows; a retest of $99,000 requires renewed demand in the spot market.
Bitcoin [BTC] extended the decline within a declining channel that began in late October. Price action remained weak as BTC consistently made lower lows over the past few sessions.
At the time of writing, BTC was trading near $96,041, having lost 5.91% on the day and 8.7% on the week.
That weakness left short-term investors deeply in the red.
Bitcoin STH Losses Hit an 8-Month High
Significantly, as Bitcoin faces continued losses, recent buyers have seen their positions turn into losses. Basically short term holders [STH] Losses, both realized and unrealized, have increased significantly in recent weeks.
Checkonchain data showed that short-term holder supply at a loss rose to 4.9 million BTC, a level last seen in April when BTC was trading between $74,000 and $76,000.
Source: Checkonchain
Such a spike indicates that most of these holders have purchased BTC at prices higher than the current market value.
Historically, mounting losses have been the result of panic selling, as market confidence tends to fall as prices fall.
STHs dumped 148,000 BTC below $100,000
According to CryptoQuantSTH dumped $148,000 BTC purchased at prices under $100,000 in the last 48 hours.
Source: CryptoQuant
This shift corresponded with BTC’s decline to $96,000, well below the $102,000 and $107,000 cost basis zones seen on the holder charts. This move caused widespread fear as STHs capitulated and accepted losses rather than risk a deeper downtrend.
Fish and shark cohorts reflected that behavior. Checkonchain charts showed Sharks (100–1k BTC) posting a balance change of −53.7k BTC in 30 days on November 16.
Source: Checkonchain
In contrast, Fish (10-100 BTC) recorded a 30-day balance change of -16.4k BTC, confirming broad retail-led selling pressure.
Such synchronized selling implied that recent buyers had a strong bearish bias during the current price decline.
Lose more if….
BTC failed to build a sustainable advantage as each upswing was accompanied by immediate selling by STHs. That pattern kept momentum weak over the past week and limited recovery efforts.
If STH’s coins continue to sell while demand remains thin, BTC could retest $94,106 as the next support.
Still, reduced STH spending combined with renewed demand in the spot market could stabilize price action. In that scenario, BTC could attempt a recovery towards $99,314, which has acted as the next resistance zone on recent charts.