Bitcoin Short-Term Holders Dump 47K BTC to Exchanges at a Loss

Bitcoin short-term holders sent more than 47,000 BTC to exchanges at a loss in the 24 hours to midnight UTC at the start of Wednesday, November 11, 2026. The data from CryptoQuant coincided with Bitcoin dropping to $72,670, its lowest level in 11 weeks and the weakest price since August 20.

The 47,025 BTC tally CryptoQuant recorded was among the largest 24-hour totals in the four months of data the platform has tracked. Decrypt reported a similar figure, roughly 47,300 BTC arriving at exchanges at a loss, compared with only about 1,100 BTC deposited at a profit over the same window.

A lopsided profit-loss ratio

CryptoQuant said that on November 10, profitable transfers totaled only around 1,700 BTC. That means roughly 27 BTC arrived at a loss for every 1 BTC moved at a profit. Independent analyst Amr Taha recorded a comparable figure, 46,060 BTC in loss-making deposits on November 10, following a 50,790 BTC spike on November 3.

Binance was a major destination for these flows. CryptoQuant noted the exchange received 8,114 BTC from coins that had last moved one day to one week earlier, based on data from November 3.

Why the $75,700 cost basis matters

Short-term holders are addresses that have held Bitcoin for up to 155 days. This cohort is generally considered more reactive, more likely to panic-sell when prices move against them compared with long-term holders who have sat on coins for years.

Cointelegraph previously reported the average cost basis for this group sits around $75,700. Once Bitcoin's price drops below that level, most recent buyers find themselves underwater on paper, which is exactly what happened this week and helped trigger the wave of panic selling visible in on-chain data.

On aggregate, short-term holders moved into unrealized profit on August 20 as Bitcoin rebounded toward $80,000. That position flipped back into aggregate unrealized loss this past Friday, signaling the August-September rebound had been fully erased.

Historical context: October was actually worse

This is not the first time this year short-term holders have rushed to sell at a loss. The largest 24-hour inflow of BTC carrying unrealized losses since late July actually occurred on October 8, hours after Bitcoin fell back to $80,000. Rolling 24-hour inflows peaked at 50,500 BTC that day, slightly higher than this week's figure.

Notably, CryptoQuant's net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) metric showed short-term holders had reached their highest profitability level since November 2025 when Bitcoin climbed to $87,200 in September. In less than two months, sentiment for this cohort swung dramatically from substantial profit to heavy losses.

What CryptoQuant's analyst said

Julio Moreno, CryptoQuant's head of research, wrote on Monday that the current price action could still represent a continuation of the downtrend that began in November 2025. "If rallies keep stalling near the cohort's cost basis and net unrealized losses deepen, the August rebound starts to look like a pause in the broader downtrend," he said.

That framing matters because it positions the drop to $72,670 not as an isolated event but as part of a pattern that has persisted for nearly a year, with occasional rebounds consistently failing to convincingly break above the short-term holder cost basis.

Other assets also under pressure

The weakness was not confined to Bitcoin. Based on pricing from November 11-12, Ethereum (ETH) traded around $2,049, down about 1.13%. Solana (SOL) sat at $82.95, down a modest 0.07%, while XRP traded at $1.04, down 0.88%. BNB was at $672.72, off 2.81%, and Litecoin (LTC) fell further, down 2.10% to $49.56.

Among DeFi and infrastructure tokens, Aave (AAVE) dropped 4.68% to $116.98, Injective (INJ) sank 8.10% to $7.41, and Pyth (PYTH) fell 6.92%. The broad-based weakness suggests selling pressure is not isolated to Bitcoin but has spread across much of the altcoin market.

What it means for traders

The $75,700 level is worth watching closely, since it represents the average cost basis for short-term holders. As long as Bitcoin stays below that mark, the risk of panic-driven selling from this cohort remains, especially if price rallies toward that level and fails to break through.

The 27-to-1 ratio between loss and profit transfers that CryptoQuant recorded on November 10 can serve as a short-term sentiment gauge. If that ratio keeps widening in the days ahead, it suggests capitulation is still underway. If it starts narrowing while price stabilizes, that could indicate selling pressure is easing.

The $72,670 level, an 11-week low, is also worth treating as near-term support. The $80,000 area, where Bitcoin briefly rebounded in early October before falling again, now functions as resistance that needs to be cleared to challenge the downtrend narrative Moreno described.

Who is most affected

Buyers who entered the market over the past three to four months, the window covered by the short-term holder definition, are feeling the most pressure. Those who bought Bitcoin above $80,000 in September and October now hold losing positions and are the most likely candidates for further panic selling.

The CryptoQuant data does not capture long-term holder behavior, a group that has historically tended to hold through sharp corrections. That behavioral gap is exactly why the short-term holder metric has become a popular gauge for reading near-term selling pressure rather than the market's overall direction.

Scenarios to watch

A few paths could unfold from here. If selling pressure from short-term holders continues and price fails to reclaim $75,700, the downtrend Moreno described could gain further confirmation from upcoming on-chain data. Alternatively, if loss-making inflows to exchanges start shrinking while price finds footing around $72,000-73,000, that could signal the capitulation phase is nearing exhaustion. The Binance inflow of 8,114 BTC from recently moved coins is also worth tracking, since it could hint at larger players acting behind the aggregate numbers.