Why Long-Term Bitcoin Holders Are Triggering a Market Pullback
2025-12-15
Bitcoin’s price movements often capture headlines with sharp rallies and sudden declines, but behind the daily volatility lies a deeper story about who owns the coins and how they behave. In 2025, long-term Bitcoin holders are emerging as a critical influence on market dynamics.
These holders, often called whales or OGs, are reshaping supply, generating selling pressure, and influencing the Bitcoin market downturn in ways that retail traders may not immediately notice.
Understanding their behavior helps explain why BTC has been struggling to recover despite broader market interest.
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How Long-term Holders Influence the Market
Long-term Bitcoin holders are not just passive investors. Many employ strategies such as selling covered calls to generate income from assets they have held for years.
Covered calls allow the holder to sell options on their existing BTC, giving buyers the right to purchase Bitcoin at a set price in the future. While this strategy produces yield for the long-term holder, it also introduces selling pressure into the market.
According to investment analyst Jeff Park, selling covered calls adds “negative delta” to the market. In simple terms, this means that even without selling their original Bitcoin holdings directly, the act of selling options indirectly increases the net supply in the market.
As market makers hedge these positions, they often sell spot BTC to manage risk, putting downward pressure on the price.
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BTC Long-Term Holders Selling and The Impact On Price
Recent price declines illustrate the effect of long-term holders on the market. Even as traditional investors, such as ETF buyers, continue to show interest, the selling pressure from whales has kept Bitcoin below key resistance levels.
Park explains that the option market now plays a substantial role in determining Bitcoin’s price fluctuations, and as long as long-term holders focus on generating short-term yield, BTC may continue to experience volatility.
Meanwhile, BTC has decoupled from tech stocks in late 2025. While equities surged, Bitcoin dropped to approximately $90,000, highlighting how internal dynamics within the crypto market, particularly actions by long-term holders, can drive price trends independently of broader markets.
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Shrinking Bitcoin Supply Adds to Market Tension
The effect of long-term holders goes beyond options trading. Bitcoin’s fixed supply, 21 million coins in total, means that as coins are locked away in wallets held for years, in ETFs, or by institutions, the available supply for active trading shrinks.
Blockchain analysis indicates that around 18 percent of Bitcoin is dormant or likely lost. These coins, combined with institutional custody and sovereign reserves, have pushed the liquid supply to less than six million BTC.
This growing scarcity amplifies the impact of long-term holder activity. When these holders sell or hedge positions, the market reacts strongly, creating a pullback even if overall demand remains healthy.
Read also: Bitcoin L2 Narrative Heats Up: MERL, BTHYPER, OP NET Compared
Institutional and Governmental Influence
Institutional investors, banks, and even governments are increasingly acting as long-term holders. Spot Bitcoin ETFs require custodial holdings, which take BTC out of circulation.
Corporate treasuries and family offices add to this trend, storing Bitcoin for the long term rather than trading actively. Governments like El Salvador have added Bitcoin to national reserves, further limiting liquid supply.
As these holders focus on preservation rather than trading, the Bitcoin market has become smaller, less liquid, and more susceptible to sudden price swings when sell orders or hedging activity occur.
Outlook for Bitcoin
The current market pullback driven by long-term holders is part of a broader structural evolution. Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a store of value rather than a speculative asset.
While this creates occasional short-term declines, it also lays the foundation for stronger long-term scarcity and potential upward price pressure as demand meets limited supply.
Investors and traders should consider the influence of long-term holders when evaluating price movements, recognizing that even minor selling activity in a market with constrained supply can have a significant effect.
FAQ
Who is the most Bitcoin holder?
The largest holder of Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonymous creator), who is estimated to possess around 1.1 million BTC. The second largest holder is Coinbase (an exchange) with approximately 897,000 BTC.
Who owns 90% of Bitcoins?
As of March 2023, the top 1% of all Bitcoin addresses collectively hold over 90% of the total Bitcoin supply, indicating a high concentration of ownership.
How many people own 10,000 Bitcoin?
Out of the over 100 million people who own Bitcoin globally, only 94 wallets control more than 10,000 BTC each, showing that very few addresses hold extremely large amounts.
Who owns Bitcoin?
No single entity owns Bitcoin. It was created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto and runs on open-source code governed by a global consensus of users and developers.
Disclaimer: The content of this article does not constitute financial or investment advice.
