140,000 BTC Exit Short-Term Holders as Capitulation Pressure Builds in Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s short-term holders have continued to realize losses, as on-chain data found sustained selling pressure across most of the past week.

According to the latest analysis by Axel Adler Jr., the Short-Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (STH SOPR), a metric that measures whether coins held for less than 155 days are being sold at a profit or loss, remained below the neutral level of 1.0 for seven of the last eight days between March 2 and March 9.

A reading below 1.0 indicates that the cohort is selling at prices lower than their acquisition cost.

Bitcoin’s Weak Hands Are Selling

As of March 9, the intraday average STH SOPR stood at 0.987, and only six out of 35 observed blocks, or about 17%, closed above the 1.0 threshold. The 7-day moving average for the metric remained near 0.992, which further supports the view that loss realization among short-term holders has persisted for several consecutive days rather than appearing as a single isolated event.

During the same period, the metric crossed above 1.0 only once, on March 4, when the price of Bitcoin briefly reached $74,000 before returning to loss-selling territory. The lowest weekly reading occurred on March 6 at 0.979, while March 8 registered 0.991. Both of these instances confirm that most transactions from this cohort were executed below cost basis.

Adler explained that the first clear signal of a change in market conditions would be STH SOPR closing above 1.0 for several consecutive days alongside rising prices.

Capitulation

In addition to the profitability metric, Adler examined changes in terms of the overall supply held by short-term investors. Over the past two weeks, the total volume of coins within the short-term holder cohort declined from approximately 6.06 million BTC to about 5.92 million BTC. This essentially indicated that roughly 140,000 BTC left the cohort.

Such a reduction reflects either capitulation through realized losses or the natural aging of coins into long-term holder status after surpassing the 155-day holding threshold. At the same time, the cohort’s realized price remained around $89,028, while the market price traded near $67,000 during the period analyzed.

The difference represents an unrealized loss of roughly 24% for the average short-term holder. Adler observed that this gap between the realized price and the current market value creates a structural supply overhang in the market. As prices recover, some short-term investors who purchased at higher levels may use rallies as opportunities to exit positions without losses, and would potentially add supply and reduce the strength of upward moves.

The combination of the two indicators points to an ongoing “cohort cleansing,” in which the more price-sensitive segment of the market is gradually exiting through selling pressure rather than through a recovery in profitability.

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