Key Insights
- •Over 400,000 BTC, valued at more than $40 billion, have been sold by long-term holders in the past month.
- •Spot Bitcoin ETFs purchased approximately $4.5 billion during the same period, leaving tens of billions in supply absorbed by unknown buyers.
- •While speculation surrounds the identity of these buyers, most analysts view this rotation of older coins as a sign of a healthy bull market phase.
The past month has been a dynamic period for Bitcoin news, marked by significant price surges, sharp corrections, and widespread speculation regarding the forces influencing the world's largest digital asset.
Headlines highlighted a notable "Red Uptober" and the largest crash in the crypto market history, which saw the total crypto market capitalization decline by over $19 billion.
However, the most insightful narrative may be emerging from the on-chain data detailing the rotation of supply.
Bitcoin News: $40 Billion in Transactions
Recent Bitcoin news has revealed that long-term Bitcoin holders have sold over 400,000 BTC, approximately equivalent to $40 billion, within the last month, with $33 billion of this occurring in October alone.
This pace of coin movement from long-term holders (LTHs) in such a condensed timeframe is historic, even under normal bullish market conditions.
As the BTC price experienced fluctuations, moving from all-time highs exceeding $126,000 to lows around $104,000 at the time of reporting, profit-taking and transfer activities reached levels not observed since early 2024.
The key question is how the BTC price has managed to withstand this selling pressure so effectively, as ETF inflows only provide a partial explanation.
Bitcoin ETF Buying: Significant, But Not Sufficient
The US Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been a dominant force in 2025, attracting substantial inflows despite a policy-influenced dip in October.
Market trackers indicate that ETFs saw net inflows of roughly $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion during October.
Major funds, including BlackRock's IBIT, continued to accumulate coins, with IBIT at times recording over $400 million in daily inflows.
However, this still leaves a considerable gap of over $30 billion between the volume of older BTC being sold and the demand from ETFs. As analyst Will Clemente noted:
“Makes you rlly wonder who’s absorbing the other $30b+ of selling from OGs in the low $100k’s.”
Who is Absorbing the Remaining Supply?
This disparity points to the presence of unidentified buyers. If ETFs are not the sole destination for these sold coins, who is acquiring them?
There is anecdotal evidence in Bitcoin news suggesting significant activity from over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks.
These desks facilitate transactions for high-net-worth individuals, crypto funds, and institutions seeking to capitalize on market volatility by acquiring assets at favorable prices.
Another potential explanation involves Asian buyers contributing to the BTC price support. Some on-chain analysis indicates that large buyers in Asia, possibly sovereign wealth funds or regional trading firms, may be quietly accumulating Bitcoin.
The possibility of nation-state buyers also exists, although this remains speculative. Investors will be closely monitoring Bitcoin news for further developments.
The entities absorbing this substantial selling pressure must possess considerable financial resources.
What is particularly noteworthy is the market's capacity to absorb such historic selling without a sustained collapse in the BTC price.
This resilience suggests either robust new demand or the presence of buyers willing to acquire assets at valuations in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Are Long-Term Bitcoin Holders Necessarily Whales?
The term "long-term holder" (LTH) is frequently used, but as on-chain analyst Willy Woo has explained, it is not necessarily indicative of early Bitcoin whales divesting.
On most analytical platforms, "LTH" simply denotes coins that have remained unmoved for at least five months. This metric does not distinguish between an original investor and any other holder.
Therefore, when on-chain data shows 400,000 Bitcoin moving out of the "LTH supply," it does not imply a mass sell-off by early adopters.
Instead, it likely represents a natural progression within a bull market, where older coins are sold to newer market participants or are moved in anticipation of market shifts.
As Woo stated, "LTH supply dropping is a normal process in a bull market because fresh capital comes in to buy the supply."
A decrease in the supply held for five months or longer primarily indicates early profit-taking or portfolio adjustments, rather than a loss of conviction in the asset.
The Rotation is Market Activity, Not Panic
Even though net institutional inflows for Bitcoin have, at times, fallen below daily mining supply levels, substantial demand originating from outside of ETFs has maintained market buoyancy.
More significantly, the so-called "profit-taking" does not appear to signal a market top. On the contrary, every major distribution of LTH supply over the past 18 months has ultimately been absorbed by incoming new capital.
This represents a classic handover of assets. As older coins find new owners, a new cohort of "long-term holders" is effectively being established in real time. Continuous monitoring of Bitcoin news is advisable to determine if demand can continue to match supply.