The amount of Bitcoin held “underwater” in wallets continues to increase and has reached all-time highs.
This Christmas, Bitcoin is breaking all kinds of records, but the price drop below $17,000 is giving Bitcoin hodlers more pain than ever before.
According to statistics from on-chain analytics company Glassnode, investors are sitting on more losses than ever before. This includes both short-term and long-term investors.
BTC/USD has not recovered since the FTX crisis put crypto markets into a tailspin.
For investors who bought it more recently, the fact that it has dropped to levels last seen two years ago is worrying because, in theory, they are making a loss on their investments.
But the suffering goes far deeper than that because Glassnode now reveals the full scope of unrealized losses that trouble both newbies and seasoned pros alike.
Current BTC price levels are a nightmare for both short-term holders (STHs) and long-term holders (LTHs). Entities that hold incoming coins for less than or more than 155 days are referred to as STHs and LTHs, respectively.
According to the most recent data, as of Dec. 26, there were 1,889,585 BTC worth of STH bitcoins held at a loss, while there were 6,057,858 BTC worth of LTH bitcoins.
This is a record for the proportion of the available Bitcoins that the tool has used, excluding Bitcoins held by exchanges.
As CoinRegency has already said, soon after the FTX crash, hodlers controlled more than half of the supply of unrealized losses.
Maximum suffering is still possible
While this is happening, it is still important to consider what the future of BTC price movement may entail.
Analysts predict that a new macro BTC price bottom is still to come, despite several data indicating that the bear market of 2022 is coming to an end.
A common aim is $10,000 for BTC/USD, which may be reached in Q1 2023 when weeks of sideways movement with little volatility come to a conclusion.
But Bitcoin could still fall from its all-time high because it hasn’t yet reached the 80% level that is typical of bear markets.
