The Christmas cheer has skipped the crypto market as the number of Bitcoin investors selling at a loss is on the rise, with daily realized losses now reaching $300 million as recent buyers become frustrated with the cryptocurrency’s current price, which is a far cry from the all-time high it achieved this year.
CryptoVizArt, lead research analyst at blockchain analytics platform Glassnode, posted on X that the realized loss volume, after filtering out internal transactions and smoothing with a 90-day simple moving average, has climbed to $300 million per day.
The figure represents an uptick in selling activity among investors who purchased Bitcoin at higher prices and are now eating losses as they exit their positions.
Based on Glassnode’s data, Bitcoin’s true market mean is $81,100 despite the global spot price being registered at $87,800.
Short-term holders hit over the head with losses
The pain is concentrated among short-term holders, and according to Glassnode’s data, the short-term holder cost basis now stands at $99,900, meaning this cohort is underwater by roughly 12% at current prices.
The short-term holder’s cost basis as of December 16 was over $101,800, and the spot price traded at $86,400.
CryptoQuant data show that Bitcoin’s spent output profit ratio sits at 0.99, which is slightly below the neutral mark of 1. The current figure shows that investors are currently selling at a loss; however, the data also shows that the gap to breaking even on their investment is not that wide.
Bitcoin slipped as low as $80,500 in November, a 36% decline from its all-time high of $126,198 recorded in early October.
Heavyweight Bitcoin backers slow down
The recent data show that Bitcoin is ending 2025 on a downward trajectory, despite firms like Strategy spending big to acquire more Bitcoin in the past few weeks. The largest Bitcoin treasury company recently raised funds but did not commit them to buying Bitcoin, which is quite unusual for the company and sends mixed messages to the market.
Some believe Strategy is catching up with the times and relaxing a bit on its bullish approach to monitor the market better. Others are not reading a lot of meaning into it.
Michael Saylor, Strategy’s chairman, recently stated that their focus goes beyond Bitcoin exposure, and this is noticeable as the company sold common stock to increase its cash buffer.
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