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On-chain data shows Ethereum investors with a holding time greater than three years have ramped up their selling to levels not seen since 2021.

Seasoned Ethereum Holders Are Increasing Their Distribution

As explained by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode in a new post on X, the 3 to 10 years old Ethereum holders have notably raised their spending recently. These investors belong to a broader group known as the long-term holder (LTH) cohort, which has a holding time cutoff of 155 days.

Statistically, the longer an investor holds onto their coins, the less likely they become to sell them at any point. As such, the LTHs as a whole can be considered diamond hands.

Since the 3 to 10 years old ETH investors would be old even by the standard of the LTHs, they may be assumed to include the most stalwart of HODLers. Given this stature of the cohort, the behavior of its investors may be worth keeping an eye on, for selling from them could be a sign that market conditions have forced even the most seasoned hands into exiting.

One way to track the behavior of the group is through the Spent Volume by Age indicator, which tracks the transactions that the various investor age bands are making on the blockchain. Below is the chart for the metric shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in its 90-day moving average (MA) for Ethereum over the last few years.

As displayed in the graph, the Spent Volume by Age has shot up for the investors belonging in the 3 to 10 years holding time bracket since late-August. At present, the 90-day MA is sitting above 45,000 ETH, meaning the veterans of the market are selling tokens worth $139 million every day.

“This marks the highest spending level by seasoned investors since Feb 2021,” noted the analytics firm. Besides the selloff in February, this group also participated in almost the same level of distribution alongside the bull run top in the second half of that year.

As the latest wave of selling has arrived, Ethereum has witnessed bearish momentum. It only remains to be seen whether this decline in the price would lead into another bear market like in late 2021, or if the bull run will regain its footing as in February 2021.

LTH selling isn’t the only bearish factor that ETH has had to deal with recently. As the chart shared by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn shows, the Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have witnessed significant outflows over the past month.

From the above chart, it’s apparent that Ethereum spot ETFs are seeing a negative 30-day netflow of $1.21 billion, while Bitcoin has had it even worse with $2.80 billion in net outflows.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading around $3,100, down over 4% in the last week.

Bitcoin has fallen below the crucial $100,000 mark, now trading near $97,000 for the first time since May. The drop underscores the growing weakness in bullish momentum, as traders struggle to defend key support levels amid mounting macroeconomic uncertainty and fading risk appetite. Market sentiment has turned sharply fearful, with investors showing increased caution following a wave of liquidations and declining volume across major exchanges.

According to data shared by CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler, Bitcoin’s performance has notably lagged behind traditional assets. Year-to-date, BTC is up just 5.5%, a gain that now risks evaporating entirely if current conditions persist. In stark contrast, gold surged 5.6% in just the last week, continuing its strong rally as investors seek safer havens amid global volatility.

While Bitcoin’s long-term structure remains intact, its short-term weakness reflects a tightening liquidity environment and growing skepticism about risk assets.

Bitcoin Faces Harsh Comparison As Traditional Markets Outperform

Axel Adler highlights how Bitcoin’s muted performance stands in sharp contrast to the impressive gains seen across traditional markets this year. His analysis paints a sobering picture of where capital has been flowing in 2025.

Gold leads the pack with a staggering 55% year-to-date (YTD) increase, driven by global uncertainty and strong institutional demand. Copper follows with +27%, benefiting from industrial expansion and supply constraints. Meanwhile, risk assets like the Nasdaq (+21%) and S&P 500 (+16%) have also delivered consistent returns, reflecting continued investor confidence in equities despite macroeconomic headwinds.

Against this backdrop, Bitcoin’s modest 5.5% YTD gain appears increasingly underwhelming. Adler notes that professional fund managers are often measured against the S&P 500 benchmark, meaning any underperformance tends to attract swift scrutiny. “If a fund manager delivers less than the S&P 500, they usually don’t stay in the job for long,” Adler remarks — a pointed reminder of how traditional assets continue to set the standard for performance.

His final comment cuts to the heart of the matter: “You don’t need a Harvard degree to buy SPY.” The implication is clear — in a market where simplicity and stability outperform speculation, Bitcoin must prove its resilience or risk losing investor attention.

Bitcoin Slips Below $100K as Selling Pressure Builds

Bitcoin’s price has fallen sharply below the psychological $100,000 mark, currently hovering around $97,300 after losing more than 2% in the past 24 hours. The daily chart reveals a clear continuation of the recent downtrend, with BTC now trading well below its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, signaling sustained weakness in short-term momentum.

The next significant support zone sits near $94,000, where Bitcoin previously consolidated in early summer. A decisive breakdown below this level could open the door to deeper retracements toward the 200-day moving average near $88,000–$90,000. On the flip side, reclaiming $100,000 as support will be crucial for any potential recovery, as that level now acts as a strong resistance barrier.

Volume data shows an uptick in sell-side activity, confirming growing pressure from profit-taking and possible liquidations. Despite the pullback, analysts suggest that the recent correction may serve as a market reset, allowing leverage to unwind and preparing for a healthier recovery phase.

Bitcoin remains in a volatile consolidation period, with macro uncertainty and exchange inflows weighing on sentiment. Bulls must defend current levels to prevent momentum from shifting decisively toward a deeper mid-cycle correction.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

A senior VanEck executive has reignited a long-running debate over XRP’s real-world utility, questioning both the relevance of the XRP Ledger and the economic case for holding the token—just as a new spot ETF has posted the strongest launch numbers of any fund this year.

Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, took direct aim at supporters on X, opening with a post that combined sarcasm and skepticism. “Dear XRP maxis,” he wrote, “I may never understand what your ‘blockchain’ actually does, but I’ll always respect the passion required to pretend it does something. So keep hustling!”

XRP Utility Debate Reignites

The tone set the stage for a thread that pushed beyond memes into pointed questions about developer activity and value accrual. In a follow-up post, Sigel asked: “Genuine question: has any developer ever woken up and said, ‘Time to build… on XRP’? Would love citations.”

Hours later, he underscored the lack of detailed responses from the community with a terse update: “Zero replies so far”. The challenge is clear. In a market where developer traction and on-chain activity are often treated as proxies for network value, Sigel is not just criticizing the narrative, but demanding evidence that ledger is actually a target platform for builders.

When an supporter pointed to Ondo Finance launching its OUSG tokenized Treasury fund on the XRP Ledger as proof the ecosystem is active, Sigel shifted the discussion to token economics.

“Cool initiative, but does any of this actually accrue value to XRP token holders? I’m not aware of any fee capture, revenue share, burn, or economic linkage. I think maybe I’m not smart enough to understand but I’ll keep trying to learn and update my views!”

The exchange also touched on the fortunes created around the token and the controversies attached to them. After one user sarcastically wrote that XRP had “funded a whole company [Ripple] on nothing and got a few billionaires out of it,” Sigel replied: “Like the one who funded Greenpeace’s ‘Change the Code’ campaign to pressure Bitcoin into abandoning PoW? Quite a legacy.”

The remark alludes to the well-known funding of Greenpeace’s anti–proof-of-work campaign by a Ripple co-founder, a move that has long polarized Bitcoin and XRP communities.

When another commenter accused him of trying to “hold ppl back” from investing in the token and dismissed Bitcoin as “completely speculative,” Sigel contrasted the two assets in terms of institutional adoption and state-level engagement.

He argued that “retail investors like University Endowments, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and today a Central Bank” are now in bitcoin, and claimed that “12 countries are now mining Bitcoin with direct government support, thanks to its synergies with the electrical grid,” before adding, “Anyway by all means, invest away in XRP. I’m not stopping you.”

The thread drew in Solana Foundation’s Vibhu Norby, who has previously clashed with the XRP community but here offered a more reconciliatory, if still critical, framing.

“XRP is a SoV coin similar to Bitcoin with cheaper fees wrapped in 13 years of payments mythology. Instead of Satoshi, the collective unconscious of the XRP Army centers around a company (which btw happens to be very well run). The XRPL has minimal usage for transactions compared to smart contract blockchains, but it is not important to its value just like Bitcoin has minimal transactions compared to smart contract blockchains but it is not important to its value,” Norby commented.

All of this unfolded against a striking market backdrop. Canary Capital’s spot ETF XRPC, began trading on November 13 and generated around $58 million in first-day volume, including $26 million in its first hour—enough to make it the biggest ETF debut of 2025 so far and narrowly surpass the launch-day volume of Bitwise’s Solana ETF, BSOL. The two funds now define the upper tier of single-asset ETF launches this year, with the next-best newcomer more than $20 million behind in day-one trading.

At press time, XRP traded at $2.27.