Bitcoin Closer to Bottoming Phase Than Early Bear Stage, Report Says

A new report from Glassnode says Bitcoin could potentially be closer to a bottoming range than the early phase of the bear market.

Bitcoin Supply In Loss Trend Doesn’t Look Similar To An Early Bear Market

In its latest weekly report, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has discussed how the current bear market structure is looking from the perspective of the Total Supply in Loss. This indicator measures the amount of Bitcoin that’s currently being held at some net unrealized loss on the blockchain.

Here is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in the 7-day moving average (MA) value of the metric over the last several years:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Total Supply in Loss approached a value of zero as the cryptocurrency’s price hit a new all-time high (ATH) in October. The market downturn that has followed since then, however, has put a large chunk of the supply into loss, causing a sharp surge in the indicator.

Today, the 7-day average value of the metric is sitting at 9.2 million BTC, which is the highest level since the end of the last bear market. Currently, there are just under 20 million tokens in circulation, so the latest value of the Total Supply in Loss corresponds to nearly half the asset’s supply. “This aligns with prior bear market environments where drawdowns approached the 50% threshold and broad investor cohorts were under pressure,” explained the analytics firm.

From the chart, it’s visible that not only is the current level of the metric similar to past bear markets, its structure in fact resembles that of their latter stages, rather than early phases.

Historically, the higher the Total Supply in Loss has gone, the more probable a market bottom has become. The reason behind the pattern is that as loss concentration increases on the Bitcoin network, selling pressure with the motive of profit-taking starts becoming exhausted. Both the 2018 and 2022 bear markets reached their bottoms alongside tops in the metric.

So far, the 7-day MA Total Supply in Loss hasn’t reached the same highs as during previous cyclical bottoms, but it has certainly come close following the most recent jump in the metric. “In structural terms, the market appears closer to a potential bottoming range than to the initial onset of contraction, even as volatility and fragility persist,” noted Glassnode.

BTC Price

Bitcoin recovered above $69,000 on Wednesday, but its price has seen a small pullback since then as it’s now trading around $67,300.