Oldest Bitcoin Holders on the Move as Price Tests $65.000

Onchain analyst Darkfost signals something striking: the oldest Bitcoin holders are on the move. Daily peaks of more than 5,000 BTC are visible among the cohorts with wallets of 5 to 7 years and 7 to 10 years old. That is remarkable, especially now that the Bitcoin price is once again testing $65.000.

Bitcoin is available at OKX and Bybit.

What exactly does this movement mean?

The data that Darkfost shares concerns so-called Spent Output Age Bands: a way to keep track of how old the Bitcoin is that is moved in a transaction. When a UTXO (a piece of Bitcoin that someone owns) is moved, that counts as ‘spent’. However, that does not automatically have to be a sale.

According to the analyst, there are two main reasons why old holders move their Bitcoin. The first is security: during an address change, the old UTXOs are technically spent and sent to a new address. The second reason is an actual sale. Darkfost does not see that second option reflected in the data, however, because the amount of Bitcoin flowing to exchanges does not show a corresponding increase.

Comparison with earlier price movement around $60.000

What makes the situation even more interesting is the timing. The analyst draws a parallel with February and March of this year, when the Bitcoin price was also around $60.000 and similar behaviour was visible among long-term holders. Now Bitcoin is at $65.000, with a slight decline of 1.0% in the past 24 hours.

The fact that precisely the oldest holders are becoming active at this price level raises questions. Earlier it already became clear that short-term holders have been realising losses for nine months, which only makes the contrast with the movement of long-term holders greater. Whether the current activity of the oldest cohorts says anything about the direction of the market remains unclear for now. As long as the outflow to exchanges is absent, there is little reason to assume that this group wants to sell en masse.