Bitcoin fell more than 4% in the last 24 hours, dropping to as low as $59,659 before slightly recovering above $60,000 as of press time. The decline comes amidst market analysts’ observations of a return of retail activity for the top crypto asset.
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During the past day, BTC erased all of the gains it made at the start of this month by declining to its lowest level since June 24. CoinMarketCap data shows that the bellwether asset has declined by around 2% in the last seven days.
Bitcoin price experiences heavy selling
Analysts have attributed this decline to the heavy selling activity witnessed in the market. On-chain researcher Ali Martinez reported that BTC miners sold 2,300 BTC worth $145 million within 72 hours as of July 2. Concurrently, blockchain sleuth, Lookonchain, also reported that a whale dumped 1,723 BTC, equivalent to $106 million, to the Binance exchange.
These actions exacerbated an already spooked market, resulting in significant losses for traders betting on BTC prices. According to Coinglass data, $47.28 million worth of BTC positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, with $41.56 million being long positions.
Meanwhile, the broad market decline also impacted other major assets like Ethereum. The data shows that traders lost around $43 million in long and short ETH positions, with the overall market liquidation amounting to $172.82 million in the pas day.
Bitcoin on-chain activity increases
Despite the price declines, on-chain data suggest that retail interest in Bitcoin is gradually returning to previous record levels. The number of new addresses on the network hit a four-month high of 432,026 on July 2, while active addresses on the chain reached 901,750 on July 1, the highest since mid-April.
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Blockchain analytical firm, IntoTheBlock, explained that this increase was “part of a bigger trend, as activity has been slowly increasing since early June.” Notably, the increase has come at a time when interest in Runes, a fungible token launched on the Bitcoin ecosystem, has considerably slowed.
Beyond the return of retail traders, the number of top Bitcoin holders has also increased. Blockchain intelligence company Santiment reported that wallets with 10+ BTC now hold 16.17 million BTC. The accumulation rate is also increasing as top holders have accumulated 1.07% more Bitcoin in the last six months alone.
