Bitcoin Investors Cash Out $500M Hourly After Golden Cross—Bullish Signal or Profit Grab?

Blockchain data reveals a surge in BTC sell-offs following the coveted golden cross formation—a classic bullish indicator. Traders dumped over half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin per hour, testing market resilience.

Golden Cross Euphoria Meets Reality: The technical pattern, where Bitcoin's 50-day moving average crosses above its 200-day average, typically signals long-term upside. But this time, it triggered a wave of profit-taking instead of sustained buying pressure.

Whale Watching: On-chain analytics show large holders leading the sell-off, with exchanges seeing massive inflows. 'When the suits start taking profits, retail gets left holding the bag,' quipped one trader—because nothing says decentralized finance like old-fashioned wealth transfer.

The chart shows the profit-taking activity has steadily increased since the second half of May, topping the $500 million mark several times. That's the most intense profit taking operation since early February.

Other metrics, such as the entity-adjusted spent output profit ratio (SOPR), suggest the same. SOPR tracks the profit level of all moved coins during a given period. It's entity-adjusted version discards transactions between addresses of the same entity, providing a reliable indicator of real economic activity.

"The recent ATH breakout has led to a notable uptick in profits locked in, with the average coin capturing a +16% profit. Fewer than 8% of trading days have been more profitable for investors, suggesting a meaningful transition into profit-taking activity is underway," Glassnode said in its weekly report.

The report added that profit-taking is still not as intense as seen during prior major price-topping patterns.

As of writing, BTC changed hands at $105,600 amid reports of President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform moving a step closer to offering a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to everyday investors.