Share this article

Short-Term Holders Send $3B in Bitcoin to Exchanges at a Loss as Mideast Tensions Rise

Geopolitical tensions triggered consecutive daily declines of almost 4% in bitcoin’s price.

Updated Oct 2, 2024, 6:12 p.m. Published Oct 2, 2024, 12:31 p.m.
jwp-player-placeholder
  • Bitcoin recorded back-to-back daily declines of 3.7% as tensions in the Middle East escalated.
  • Short-term holders sent $3 billion worth of bitcoin to exchanges at a loss over the past two days.

In the past two days, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, bitcoin registered consecutive declines of 3.7% as geopolitical tensions ramped up in the Middle East, culminating in Iran's 200 ballistic- missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.

With the largest cryptocurrency little changed on Wednesday, this year marks the worst-ever start to an October, a month that's historically provided positive returns.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Bitcoin Daily Price Performance (Glassnode)
Bitcoin Daily Price Performance (Glassnode)

One headwind comes from so-called short-term holders, which Glassnode defines as investors who have held bitcoin for less than 155 days. This is a group that tends to panic-sell when the BTC price drops below their cost basis. Glassnode data shows this cohort has bought roughly 100,000 bitcoin since Sept. 19, when bitcoin was trading at $62,000.

By Sept. 27, bitcoin had surged to above $66,000, and, as the chart shows, this group was buying aggressively as the price increased. However, they started dumping their holdings as the price started to fall.

Short Term Holder Supply (Glassnode)
Short Term Holder Supply (Glassnode)

In the past two days, short-term holders have sent roughly 64,000 bitcoin to exchanges, the equivalent of $4 billion. Of that, some $3 billion was sent at a loss, meaning it was sent when the price was lower than the entity's average on-chain acquisition price.

This is the highest amount of loss sent to exchanges by the group since Aug. 5, during the yen carry trade unwind, which saw $2.5 billion of losses sent in one day.

Long-term holders, on the other hand, seem to be holding their nerve. As a group, they sent just 100 bitcoin at a loss to exchanges over the same time frame.


More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

Farcaster Switches to Wallet-First Strategy to Grow Its Social App

friends, social

The protocol still consists of casts, follows, reactions, identities and wallets, and third-party clients are free to emphasize whichever components they want.

What to know:

  • Farcaster is shifting its focus from social media to its in-app wallet and trading features to drive user engagement.
  • Cofounder Dan Romero acknowledged the lack of sustainable growth in their social-first strategy over the past 4.5 years.
  • The wallet's trading tools have shown the strongest product-market fit, leading to a strategic pivot towards financial use cases.