"Old BTCs" usually go to three destinations: institutional custody, OTC for large players, or internal wallet reorganization. Bulk sales are less common than they seem.

Bitcoin’s oldest coins are finally moving, and the shift feels less like routine trading and more like a quiet reshuffling of who actually owns the network. CryptoQuant’s recent chart, which tracks “revived supply” (Bitcoin that lay dormant for two years or more before moving), shows that 2024 and 2025 together produced the largest release of long-held BTC in history. These aren’t quick flips by day traders; they’re coins held by people who have historically weathered halving cycles and major market events. When they move, it usually signals something structural.

If you followed the market last year, the picture isn’t hard to put together. Bitcoin blasted to new highs in late 2025, riding heavy ETF demand and broader institutional flows, only to give back a chunk of those gains during a sharp correction. That volatility wasn’t driven only by new buyers chasing headlines. On-chain data reveal that significant volumes came from old wallets: early adopters, long-time custodians and other holders who’d been quiet for years. In short, the supply shock was less about retail hype and more about people who’d parked BTC for a long time deciding to rebalance or take profits.

The Quiet Unwinding

What makes this episode especially interesting is the age of the coins moving. The revived supply isn’t coming mostly from recent entrants; it’s coming from vintage cohorts, wallets that have held through multiple cycles. That suggests a reassessment of exposure rather than a knee-jerk reaction. In a market that now includes ETFs, OTC desks and deep-pocketed institutional players, the calculus for selling looks different. Older holders may be swapping part of their stash into cash, other assets, or different structures, rather than simply dollar-cost averaging out. That matters because it slowly changes the composition of holders, and with it, the market’s sensitivity to macro flows rather than pure retail sentiment.

There’s already evidence that this behavior affected the price. The late-2025 correction coincided with spikes in long-term holder distribution on-chain, and those flows helped create the sell pressure that amplified the drawdown. Now, early 2026 data show those revived supply levels have cooled from the peaks, but they haven’t disappeared. That leaves room for two plausible stories: either this was a one-time structural reallocation as legacy holders adapt to a more institutional market, or it marks the start of a longer-term trend where older cohorts steadily reduce exposure.

Which story plays out will shape how we think about Bitcoin going forward. If old coins keep moving into newer hands that are more macro- and liquidity-driven, price swings could become more correlated with institutional flows and global macro conditions. If instead these movements were a finite rebalancing, we might see accumulation resume and volatility dampen. Either way, the revival of long-held supply is a clear, human-sized indicator: people who’ve waited years to move Bitcoin finally decided to act, and that choice is rewriting this market’s dynamics.