Bitcoin Realized Loss Remains Low Despite Volatility, What Does This Mean?

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin realized loss metric has stayed at a low value recently, despite the volatility that the coin has experienced.

Bitcoin Realized Loss Continues To Be At A Relatively Low Value

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, investors realized just $112 million in losses during the recent plummet in the cryptocurrency’s value.

The “entity-adjusted realized loss” is a metric that measures the total amount of loss (in USD) that Bitcoin investors have recently been realizing on the blockchain.

Whenever a coin sits still on the network for a while (meaning that it hasn’t been transferred to another address) and the price goes above or below the value at which it was acquired, the coin is said to gain an “unrealized profit/loss.”

When such a coin that’s carrying an unrealized profit or loss is finally moved or sold on the blockchain, the profit/loss it was carrying previously then becomes “realized.”

The realized loss metric specifically tracks such losses being harvested throughout the network (and naturally, the counterpart indicator, the realized profit, measures the profits).

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin entity-adjusted realized loss over the last couple of years:

Looks like the value of the metric has been relatively unchanged in recent weeks | Source: Glassnode on Twitter

As shown in the above graph, when Bitcoin crashed a couple of days back after the news of fresh regulatory pressure on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the realized loss had measured around $112 million. Then, the following day, losses were almost halved as the metric measured to around only $64 million.

Usually, during volatile events like crashes, there are a large number of investors who panic and sell off their coins, even if they are holding them at a loss. Such investors are generally inexperienced short-term holders, who are quick to lose their conviction in the asset.

Because of this reason, sharp plunges in the price of the cryptocurrency have historically been marked by huge capitulation events where the realized loss indicator registers a large spike.

From the chart, it’s visible that the May 2021 crash, the LUNA collapse in May 2022, the 3AC bankruptcy in June 2022, and the FTX collapse in November 2022 all saw widespread capitulation from the holders.

Out of these, the crash after the 3AC bankruptcy saw the largest amount of realized losses, as the indicator’s value hit around $3.1 billion during it, while the FTX collapse saw the least amount of losses at $1.45 billion.

Both of these values are, however, extremely large when compared to the losses that Bitcoin investors have harvested in this latest period of price volatility. According to Glassnode, this trend would suggest “an increased degree of resilience amongst market participants.”

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $26,800, down 1% in the last week.

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