The recent selling spree coincides with net outflows from U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs, according to data.
Key Sellers: Long-Term Holders and Miners
Long-term Bitcoin holders and miners have been major sellers over the past two weeks, showing little indication of renewed buying interest, CryptoQuant reported on Wednesday. This trend is evident from the decrease in UTXO age bands, which signal increased selling activity. Some suggest that miners are pivoting to the booming AI sector due to diminishing mining rewards post-halving, further contributing to the selling pressure.
Whale Activity and Market Impact
CryptoQuant’s data reveals that wallets associated with whales—large holders of Bitcoin—have sold over $1.2 billion worth of BTC in the past two weeks, likely through brokers rather than open market transactions.
“Traders are still not increasing their Bitcoin holdings, and the demand growth from large holders is still lacking,” analysts noted. Stablecoin liquidity has also slowed down, marking the slowest growth pace since November 2023.
UTXO Age Bands and Market Behavior
The decline in UTXO age bands tracked by CryptoQuant indicates a reduction in Bitcoin holdings since BTC prices surged above $70,000 in late May. Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXO) are created in every Bitcoin transaction and are used by traders to track buying and selling patterns. A drop in UTXO age usually indicates increased Bitcoin activity and selling, while a rise suggests more holding in the market.
Miners Shifting Focus to AI
Market observers note that miners might be increasingly eyeing the artificial intelligence (AI) sector instead of Bitcoin, selling their Bitcoin rewards instead of holding them. Both sectors rely heavily on powerful computing chips to generate and maintain data—a resource that miners already possess.
“One of the biggest trends since Bitcoin’s halving this year is miners increasingly diverting to the AI business,” said Lucy Hu, senior analyst at crypto fund Metalpha. “The fall in mining rewards has prompted miners to seek other revenue channels. With AI firms demanding energy-intensive data centers, Bitcoin miners are gradually growing revenue from sales to AI firms.”
Market and ETF Performance
Since June 5, BTC prices have fallen from $71,000 to just over $65,000, influenced by a strong dollar, a flight from riskier assets, and growth in traditional stock indices. U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking Bitcoin recorded net outflows of over $600 million last week—their worst performance since late April.
Some traders have warned of a potential drop to as low as $60,000 in the absence of growth catalysts. As of the latest data, BTC is down 0.6% in the past 24 hours.
