Bitcoin (BTC) is seeing record selling from old hands — but the trend began far below current prices.

Key points:

• Bitcoin long-term holders have beaten records with their sales over the past two years.

• Selling behavior this bull market sets it apart from previous ones.

• A price cycle and investor “transition” is now underway.

CryptoQuant: Revived BTC supply “stands out”

New research from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant confirms ongoing sales of “significantly older coins” this bull market.

Unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) involving BTC previously dormant for two years or more have spiked since 2024.

“What stands out is that 2024 and 2025 record the highest annual revived supply from long-term holders in Bitcoin’s history,” contributor Kripto Mevsimi commented alongside an explanatory chart.

The data reveals both 2024 and 2025 rivalling the distribution seen at the end of a previous bull market in 2017, which ended when BTC/USD topped $20,000.

“This is not just a repeat of 2017 or 2021,” Kripto Mevsimi stressed.

“While those cycles saw revived supply rise alongside strong price momentum and speculative inflows, the current revival is happening with lower overall market noise but significantly older coins.”

CryptoQuant argued that long-term holders of Bitcoin are now “reassessing exposure” to the market — and have been ever since price passed the $40,000 mark.

“Early 2026 data does not yet show a full reversal of this trend, but revived long-term supply has moderated compared to the peaks of 2024–2025,” Kripto Mevsimi added about the latest phase of the trend. 

“Whether this represents temporary exhaustion or the start of a new accumulation phase will become clearer as the year progresses.”

Bitcoin is undergoing a “transition”

As Cointelegraph reported, long-term holders bringing long-dormant coins to market has become a major talking point in recent months.

Related: BTC vs. new $80K ‘liquidity grab’: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin’s underperformance versus other major asset classes from Q4 2025 onward has, in turn, led to questions about how the coming year might diverge from previous price cycles.

Notably, 2026 is scheduled to be a bear market year, and various forecasts see a return to far lower levels than the current $90,000.

Whether the four-year price cycle even remains valid likewise forms a topic of debate for market participants. 

“Bitcoin is not only undergoing a price cycle, but potentially a transition in who holds it and why—and long-term holder supply behavior is one of the clearest on-chain signals of that shift,” CryptoQuant concluded.