Bitcoin’s Old Guard Stops Dumping – Is the Bottom In?
After months of relentless selling, long-term Bitcoin holders finally hit the brakes. On-chain data suggests the ’diamond hands’ cohort has exhausted their urge to liquidate—just as Wall Street analysts start whispering about ’crypto winters.’
What changed? The market’s psychological floor might be forming when even the most hardened HODLers pause their exits. Meanwhile, institutional traders are quietly accumulating—because nothing screams ’buy signal’ like retail investors capitulating.
One cynical take? This is just the calm before the next cycle where bankers ’discover’ Bitcoin... again.
OG Bitcoin Holders Lead Spending Spike
According to a tweet by Glassnode, the three-year to five-year bitcoin holder cohort is experiencing a slowdown in their BTC sales. This comes after they resumed selling in April, depleting their supply share by a notable percentage.
CryptoPotato reported last week that Bitcoin investors holding the digital asset for a year to five years recorded a spike in their spending, bringing their aggregate volume to $4.02 billion. There are three age cohorts in this investor group, comprising one- to two-year, two- to three-year, and three- to five-year holders.
These investors have spent notable amounts of BTC each time the cryptocurrency rallied in March, October, November 2024, and February 2025. The spending spike recorded this time is the fifth-largest in this bull cycle, and it has been led by the three-year to five-year age cohort with $2.16 billion. Glassnode mentioned that this figure marked their second-largest outflow of the cycle, following $6 billion recorded in March 2024.
Older Investors Show Exhaustion Signs
Additional information now provided by Glassnode reveals that the three-to-five-year cohort reached an all-time high (ATH) of 15.7% in supply on November 9, 2024. Such levels had not been seen since March 2017.
This investor cohort began selling soon after hitting the ATH, paused for some time, and resumed again in April 2025. Currently, their supply share stands at 11.9%, significantly above the cycle low of approximately 3%, suggesting a pause in sales.
Glassnode states that this represents a significant overhang and that this group, which still controls a large share of wealth, tends to sell into strength. This means that even though the three-year to five-year cohort is showing signs of selling exhaustion, they are likely to sell when BTC hits higher prices, especially with their supply share still hovering around 12%.
As older Bitcoin holders are currently refraining from taking profits, BTC is likely to witness its next leg up soon. However, as they take profits during rallies, BTC will face significant resistance during the next surge.
