The recent rise in Bitcoin price has made short-term investors, who have been selling at a loss for weeks, profitable again. While BTC approaching the $97,000 level provides fresh liquidity to the market with increasing ETF inflows and whale movements, analysts are closely monitoring whether this process signals a possible “local top”.
Short-Term Investors Turned from Loss to Profit
According to CryptoQuant data, the Short-Term Holder Profit and Loss to Exchanges metric has risen above zero again. This data shows that investors who bought Bitcoin in the last 155 days are now selling to the stock exchanges at a profit. While this group has mainly been selling at a loss in recent weeks, the upward break in the price has reversed the situation.
Short-term investors are known for reacting faster to price fluctuations. For this group, which generally buys and sells in small time intervals, the price rising above the neutral level also means psychological relief. According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin gained 6 percent in value in the last four days and 5.6 percent in the last week. The total increase since the beginning of the year is approximately 10 percent. This performance made sales conditions attractive for investors who were previously “at a loss”.
Increased Liquidity and ETF Inflows Support the Market
The rise in Bitcoin price has also significantly increased liquidity in the market. BTC stabilized around $95,000 at the time of writing, after rising above $97,000 this week. This move allowed investors to close positions without experiencing significant price movements.
On the other hand, spot Bitcoin ETFs also offer strong support to the market. According to Sosovalue data, there was a net inflow of over $100 million into spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 15. Thus, positive flow was seen for four consecutive days. While the total inflow since January 12 reached 1.8 billion dollars, there was an outflow of 1.3 billion dollars from ETFs in the previous period.
CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju states that individual investors are staying in the background, but big players are becoming more active. Average order sizes in spot and futures transactions indicate that the recent buying pressure is mainly created by “whales”.
In addition to these developments, the recent news that some large banks in the USA will take steps to expand their crypto custody services was also positively received in the market. Increasing institutional interest stands out as another factor supporting Bitcoin’s medium-term outlook.
The return of short-term investors to profits in Bitcoin is an important turning point in terms of market psychology. However, historically, such periods also pave the way for processes in which profit realizations increase and volatility increases. Although ETF inflows and whale purchases support the rise, sales pressure that may increase in the $95-97 thousand range may cause fluctuations in the short term. Therefore, cautious optimism for investors seems to be the most balanced approach at this stage.
