Bitcoin’s price has approached the resistance level above $70,000 again, hindered from advancing further by an increase in investors cashing in profits.
On March 26, BTC reached a high of $71,375, nearly touching its all-time high of $73,738 set earlier in the month, but it did not surpass this record.
The inability to break new ground is primarily attributed to heightened profit-taking activities, as identified by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode.
In its latest report, Glassnode highlighted a noticeable rise in profit-taking actions. The market has encountered resistance as over $2.6 billion in profits were realized, according to the firm.
Profit-Taking Seen as Standard Market Action
Glassnode pointed out that the 16% pullback in Bitcoin’s price on March 26 mirrored the correction seen before the last halving event, suggesting a pattern in these retracements.
The report further detailed that the bulk of the 2 million BTC, which transitioned from being ‘in-profit’ to ‘in-loss’ during this dip, now have an acquisition cost over $61.2K and were recently traded.
At this market peak, in excess of $2.6 billion in profits were captured through on-chain transactions, Glassnode stated.
Additionally, long-term investors, including those offloading shares from the GBTC Trust, accounted for about 40% of this profit-taking.
Since converting to a spot ETF in mid-January, Grayscale’s GBTC has seen a reduction of 277,393 BTC, with $212 million exiting on March 26 alone. Yet, the deficit has been more than compensated for by the influx into nine newly launched ETFs.
The report also noted that the remaining $1.56 billion in profits was realized by short-term holders. These traders were capitalizing on the incoming liquidity and the prevailing market trends, reminiscent of behaviors observed at the peaks of previous cycles.
“Profit realization by these groups is now parallel to the levels seen at the peak of the 2021 bull run,” Glassnode remarked.
The firm concluded that such profit-taking practices are “typical for the market” and closely match the patterns seen during previous cycles’ all-time high breakthroughs.
Other Crypto Market Movements
As of this report, BTC’s price remained stable at about $70,000, as the market paused. It’s currently only 4.6% below its March 14 high.
The total market capitalization stood at $2.79 trillion, just 9.4% short of its all-time high of $3.08 trillion in November 2021.
During the Wednesday morning trading session in Asia, most altcoins showed little movement. BNB, XRP, AVAX, and TON experienced minor pullbacks, while DOGE, SHIB, and ICP recorded slight increases.