Bitcoin Traders Cash In $500M Hourly After Golden Cross—Classic ’Buy the Rumor, Sell the News’

Just as the crypto crowd high-fived over Bitcoin’s golden cross, the sell-off alarms started blaring. On-chain data reveals a $500M-per-hour profit-taking spree—because why hold when you can book gains and let the next guy bag-hold?

Golden cross or not, traders treat technical signals like a buffet: take what you want and bail before the check arrives. Meanwhile, Wall Street ’experts’ still can’t decide if Bitcoin’s a currency, an asset, or their worst FOMO nightmare.

The chart shows the profit-taking activity has steadily increased since the second half of May, topping the $500 million mark several times. That’s the most intense profit taking operation since early February.

Other metrics, such as the entity-adjusted spent output profit ratio (SOPR), suggest the same. SOPR tracks the profit level of all moved coins during a given period. It’s entity-adjusted version discards transactions between addresses of the same entity, providing a reliable indicator of real economic activity.

"The recent ATH breakout has led to a notable uptick in profits locked in, with the average coin capturing a +16% profit. Fewer than 8% of trading days have been more profitable for investors, suggesting a meaningful transition into profit-taking activity is underway," Glassnode said in its weekly report.

The report added that profit-taking is still not as intense as seen during prior major price-topping patterns.

As of writing, BTC changed hands at $105,600 amid reports of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform moving a step closer to offering a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to everyday investors.