Bitcoin News: Long-Term Holders Shed 300K BTC, Is the Bear Market Here?

The latest Bitcoin news suggests long-term holders have been selling after they shed 300,000 BTC, according to insights from on-chain analytics platform Glassnode.

Alongside indicators like the 50-period EMA, this activity has triggered a debate on X between bears who believe Bitcoin is on the cusp of sinking into a bear market, and bulls with unwavering faith that the cryptocurrency will soon add another zero to its price.

Meanwhile, in a series of posts on X, Jan3 founder Samson Mow pointed out that the market still has "plenty of upside" as Bitcoin has only recently outperformed inflation, which has edged closer to a rate of 3%.

"The Bitcoin bull run hasn’t started yet. We’re just marginally outperforming inflation at this price range," he stated on Wednesday.

He also urged Bitcoiners to stay out of fear, noting how incredibly easy it is for people to create their own fear by believing Crypto OGs were offloading their holdings above $100,000.

The latest Bitcoin news insights by Glassnode indicate long-term holders are selling at a time when the price of Bitcoin is 21% down from its all-time high.

According to the report, this trend has been ongoing since July and continued even as Bitcoin reached its peak at the beginning of October.

Bitcoin News: Demand Subsides As Long-Term Holders' Supply Behavior Weighs Down Bitcoin Price

Long-term holders have quietly been shaping the market over the past few months, and their behavior helps explain why Bitcoin has slipped towards the $100,000 mark.

Their supply shifts reflect two forces: coins being spent and coins maturing into long-term status after roughly 155 days.

Since July 2025, spending has consistently outpaced maturation. As a result, a slow but steady distribution has been taking place beneath the surface.

Data shows that long-term holders have spent approximately 2.4 million BTC during this period. New maturations absorbed much of that pressure, yet the market still recorded a net supply drop of 300,000 BTC.

According to Glassnode, if the maturation effect is stripped out, the spending alone equals roughly 12% of the circulating supply.

This represents a significant outflow, and it has added meaningful sell-side pressure even as prices appeared relatively stable.

At the same time, institutional demand has softened. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have posted steady outflows for two consecutive weeks, ranging from $150 million to $700 million per day.

This is a stark reversal from the strong inflows seen in September and early October, which had helped prevent deeper pullbacks.

At the time of writing, that cushion no longer exists amidst a high rate of profit-taking and increasing risk appetite for new exposure, which has continued to slow down the uptake of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

As such, the cooling phase continues to subdue the markets with weakened overall demand and reduced buy-side conviction following multiple months of aggressive accumulation.

Together, the quieter LTH distribution and fading ETF inflows have created a supply-demand imbalance.

That combination has weighed on price and contributed directly to Bitcoin’s slide toward the $100,000 level.

Bitcoin Bear or Bull Stage Depends With 50-EMA At $101,000, Says Expert

Bitcoin’s weekly chart is now sitting at a crossroads, and the reaction around the 50-week EMA is shaping the next major narrative in this cycle.

The latest candle shows price breaking just below the 50-week EMA near $100,900. That level has been a reliable trend guide for nearly two years, carrying Bitcoin through its strongest rallies since 2023.

Each time BTC tested it, buyers stepped in. This time, however, the candle sliced through it with clear downside momentum.

Analyst Ted Pillows, who has been tracking this structure closely, noted that Bitcoin "dumped right below the EMA-50 level exactly as predicted."

He added that the entire direction of the market now hinges on how the weekly candle closes.

A weekly close above the 50-EMA with convincing buy volume would signal that this dip may have reached exhaustion.

It would suggest that long-term trend support is still intact and that buyers are willing to defend the cycle.

However, a weekly close below this moving average would paint a very different picture. It would mark Bitcoin’s first sustained break beneath this trend line since late 2022.

If that happens, the dump is likely only beginning. The chart already shows weakening momentum at the top and a lower-high structure forming, which often precedes deeper retracements in extended bull phases.

An "Opening Act" Of Bearish Phase?

Market commentator Doctor Profit reinforced this risk, saying this downturn "is not a correction only," but the opening act of a new bearish phase.

He projected that major downside targets sit in the $54,000–$60,000 region and warned those levels could come into play by September or October of 2026.

From a pure technical standpoint, losing the 50-EMA on the weekly time frame is one of the clearest signals that trend strength is fading.

When that support fails, price typically gravitates toward the next major demand zone—and in this cycle, those zones sit far lower.