Bitcoin falls below $97,000! Long-term holders sell off in droves, market sentiment turns bearish.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $96,840.72, a six-month low and more than 23% lower than its all-time high in early October.

According to analyst CryptoQuant, market pressure is primarily coming from long-term holders—investors who have held Bitcoin for more than 155 days—who are accelerating their selling. They have sold approximately 815,000 Bitcoins in the past 30 days, the largest sell-off since January 2024. Market sentiment has clearly turned bearish.

Demand also showed signs of weakness. Global listed companies added only 14,400 Bitcoins in October, the lowest monthly increase this year. On the other hand, traders who had built large long positions betting on a year-end rebound failed to realize their profits and were forced to close them, which exacerbated the decline.

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history caused a temporary liquidity crunch, and investors’ deep unease about the delayed release of economic data put pressure on risk assets as a whole.

This recent decline also reflects the fact that the crypto market has not yet recovered from the record-breaking single-day liquidation on October 10th, which wiped out a staggering $20 billion in leveraged positions. Bitcoin has only risen 5.8% this year, significantly lagging behind the Nasdaq’s 18.6% gain.