Buyers and long-term holders sell as Bitcoin stalls under $70,000

Bitcoin crossed $65,000 on Wednesday for the first time in about a month and then retreated below $63,000, with selling from both recent buyers and long-term holders occurring during the rally. The additional supply coincided with options open interest clustered above $70,000, creating a zone of resistance.

On-chain data show coins in the 18-month-to-two-year UTXO cohort have a realized cost basis near $80,800, leaving many in that group with unrealized losses at current prices. Those older holdings were moved to exchanges during the rebound as their realized-loss volume increased while the price approached roughly $66,000.

Glassnode data showed: “Currently, more than 65% of exchange inflows are attributable to long-term holders realizing losses, a reading consistent with prior bear market phases where this cohort dominated the sell side.” At the same time, investors who bought near June lows sold into the rally to lock in gains; volumes of short-term holder selling reached levels last seen around the market peak in May.

Recent buyers have a cost basis near $69,000. Options market positioning adds a concentration of activity above that level. Deribit open interest shows about $1.6 billion of call exposure at the $70,000 strike, $1.0 billion at $72,000, $686 million at $75,000 and $1.2 billion at $80,000, roughly $4.5 billion in that corridor. Those strikes mark levels where hedging or adjustments by options participants could occur as price approaches them.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded inflows for three consecutive sessions, with $181.1 million on Tuesday, $107.7 million on Wednesday and $79 million on Thursday, a combined $367.8 million that recovered most of Monday’s $424 million withdrawal. The week still showed a net ETF outflow of about $56 million. Combined flows for two of the largest spot ETFs averaged net outflows above 1,250 BTC per day over the last 30 days, and overall trading volume across the US ETF market has declined.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler’s Bitcoin Regime Score rose to 34.7 from -42.9 on June 26 and spent most of the recent week in positive territory; Regime Confidence increased to about 79.4% over a 24-hour window. Other on-chain measures are mixed: the 30-day average realized-loss volume for the long-term cohort has begun to pull back from recent highs, but the decline remains brief.

Open interest in puts is concentrated near $60,000 with about $1 billion and near $50,000 with about $840 million, creating another large concentration below the market. If Bitcoin cannot clear the $70,000–$80,000 call corridor, the next significant price test would be near $60,000 where large put exposure and prior buyer interest intersect.

Observers will track whether ongoing ETF inflows and spot buying can absorb sales from newer buyers moving toward break-even and older holders reducing losses. Price action in the coming sessions will interact with concentrated options strikes, exchange inflows and mixed on-chain indicators.