For every buyer, there is a seller, and in 2025, these sellers have been particularly active.
Bitcoin has mostly traded sideways, fluctuating in a ~20% range around $100,000 since the start of 2025.
The dominant narrative is that the “OGs” or long-term holders have offloaded the coins. That’s true, but how much bitcoin has actually changed hands?
According to analyst James Check, also known as Checkmate, the cumulative revived supply, the total amount of coins returned to circulation after being inactive for more than six months, reached 4.655 million BTC in 2025. This breaks down as follows:
- 1.91 million BTC from holders who have been inactive for two years or more.
- 844,000 BTC for 1-2 year holders.
- 1.9 million BTC for holders of 6 to 12 months.
In dollar terms, Checkmate estimates that the revived supply reached $500 billion in 2025, slightly above $470 billion in 2024. However, in BTC terms, 2024 saw almost 7 million BTC revived, up from 4.655 million BTC this year.
Several factors are driving this sales activity. The $100,000 price level represents a psychologically and profit-wise milestone.
Some long-term holders have sought diversification into gold or AI stocks.
Some are wary of emerging threats like quantum computing, while others react to the four-year cycle. Bitcoin is now about 18 months into its halving, a period that often corresponds with market peaks and increased profit-taking by long-term holders.
Galaxy Research came to a similar conclusion. According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, more than 470,000 BTC held for over five years, worth around $50 billion, changed hands in 2025, the second largest notional amount ever after 2024.
Combining 2024 and 2025, almost half of all bitcoins over 5 years old spent were moved in those two years, representing 78% of all those BTC spent in dollar terms.
In total, over the past two years, more than $104 billion in long-dormant coins have been redistributed from old to new, according to the memo.
