Bitcoin Investors Sit on $1.2 Trillion in Unrealized Gains – Is a BTC Selloff Coming?

• A report from Glassnode shows that investors are sitting on $1.2 trillion in unrealized profits, highlighting just how much value holders are yet to cash in.
• Investors are mostly holding their assets, with little movement, while stablecoin buying power remains steady.

Glassnode’s latest report opens by addressing the recent impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the broader crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) is the dominant asset with a market cap of around $2.1 trillion, and saw its price dip from $106K to $99K, briefly shaking the confidence of investors.

However, it found solid footing around the Short-Term Holder cost basis at $98.3K, highlighting strong support from recent buyers.

Despite this short-term volatility, the long-term picture looks increasingly mature. Bitcoin’s market cap has grown massively, from just $304 billion to $2.13 trillion, while its realized cap has climbed from $400 billion to $955 billion.

Now, think of Bitcoin’s market cap as its current price tag and the realized cap as what people actually paid to buy it. The gap between those two numbers shows how much profit or loss investors are sitting on, basically, unrealized gains. Currently, that profit stands at around $1.2 trillion, demonstrating the significant value Bitcoin has accrued over time. But it also means there’s a lot of potential selling pressure if market sentiment turns sour.

Profit-Taking Remains Muted

The Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) metric gives us a clearer picture of investor gains or losses by comparing Bitcoin’s current market value to what people originally paid for it. It shows whether the average holder is sitting on profits or losses, helping us gauge overall market sentiment.

Glassnode adds that,

At the moment, the average paper gain held per investor stands at +125%, suggesting Bitcoin investors are sitting on significant profits. This remains substantially lower than the +180% profitability seen in March 2024 when the price hit the then $73k ATH, and also when the market initially broke $100k in Dec 2024.

The next thing to look at is how investors are actually reacting, are they cashing out and locking in gains? The report explains that one way to track this is by measuring how much profit or loss is being realized on-chain each day.

Currently, despite Bitcoin trading 4% below its all-time high of $111,000, profit-taking has been relatively subdued. Investors are only locking in about $872 million in profits daily, which is a lot lower than the $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion seen during the previous peaks at $73K and $107K.

There are clear signs that long-term holders aren’t rushing to sell. In fact, the total amount of Bitcoin held by this group just hit a new all-time high of 14.7 million BTC.

To be considered a long-term holder, coins need to sit untouched for at least 155 days, and that window now includes buyers from the big breakout above $100K back in January. Glassnode emphasised that,

This underscores that HODLing remains the dominant market behavior amongst investors, with accumulation and maturation flows significantly outweighing distribution pressures.

Stablecoins have quietly become the backbone of the digital asset world. Whether it’s on major exchanges or within DeFi protocols. Leading the charge are giants like Tether (USDT), boasting a massive market cap of $157 billion, and USD Coin (USDC), with $61 billion. But the space is evolving fast.

New entrants are making moves, each with a unique angle. USD1, a USD-pegged token launched in March 2025 by World Liberty Financial, entered the arena boldly. Then there’s USDY from Ondo Finance, introduced in 2024, which adds a yield component to the mix, giving holders more than just a stable dollar. Let’s not forget RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin that was launched in December 2024.