Bitcoin has reclaimed the $80,000 area, but on-chain signals suggest the rally is running into a familiar problem: even when buyers show up, sell-side pressure from investors sitting on profits can reappear quickly.

According to on-chain analytics from CryptoQuant, older “long-term holder” coins have become more active around recent local highs, while a widely watched gauge of U.S. demand—the Coinbase premium—remains slightly negative. Together, the data points to a market that can push upward, but struggles to sustain momentum without stronger fresh buying from the U.S.

Key takeaways

• CryptoQuant data shows the spent output profit ratio (SOPR) for long-term holders rose to 1.48 on Aug. 22, indicating profit-taking-related activity is increasing among older coins.
• The SOPR ratio (short-term holders vs. long-term holders) peaked at 1.4 near $79,500—its highest reading since July 25—before slipping to 0.93, implying relative selling dynamics may be shifting back toward short-term holders.
• All major holder cohorts are reportedly in profit on aggregate, creating conditions where additional upside requires demand strong enough to absorb profitable supply.
• The Coinbase premium index is still negative at -0.015, underscoring that U.S. spot demand has not fully regained strength despite Bitcoin’s local push higher.

Older Bitcoin holders increase on-chain profit-taking signals

CryptoQuant’s monitoring highlights that “older” Bitcoin coins moved on-chain more actively during the latest rise. The firm links this behavior to a period when BTC/USD gained more than 25% over the past week, according to the related market context cited alongside the analysis.

The specific on-chain indicator at the center of the update is the spent output profit ratio (SOPR). SOPR compares the value of recently spent UTXOs against the value at the time those outputs were created. In CryptoQuant’s read, SOPR ticking up to 1.48 on Aug. 22 points to increased movement involving in-profit coins—an environment that often accompanies selling or at least reallocation of positions.

CryptoQuant also points to a second metric: the SOPR ratio, which divides the SOPR of short-term holders (STH) by that of long-term holders (LTH). Here, STH refers to wallets that hold BTC for up to six months, while LTH refers to wallets holding longer than six months.

As price consolidated around $79,500, the SOPR ratio reached 1.4, the highest reading since July 25. In CryptoQuant’s framing, that peak suggested long-term holders were realizing profits at a higher relative rate than short-term holders at that moment.

However, the picture quickly cooled. CryptoQuant later reported the SOPR ratio had fallen to 0.93, saying the shift implies short-term holders’ realized performance is now relatively stronger than long-term holders’ realized performance.

Why the SOPR trend matters for traders near $80,000

Profit-taking signals often show up with a lag: price can rise while the market is still digesting prior positioning, but once more investors become “in profit” enough to consider exits, upward momentum can stall. CryptoQuant notes that the SOPR ratio has been forming a broad downtrend since early 2025. By the end of June, it reportedly hit 0.62—its lowest levels in three years as BTC/USD traded near $58,000.

That earlier low matters because it sets the stage for what investors should watch now. While Bitcoin has only reversed modestly higher since that period, the market has not been able to remain above $80,000, implying the rebound has met persistent resistance from supply and realized profit behavior.

In a key takeaway from CryptoQuant, the firm emphasizes that the market question is less about whether Bitcoin can “briefly touch” $80,000 and more about whether new demand is sufficient to absorb selling from profitable holders. That distinction is important for both short-term traders and longer-term investors: price can reach a level, but the sustainability of the move depends on whether incremental buyers continue stepping in as profit-taking grows.

U.S. demand still weak as Coinbase premium stays negative

While on-chain SOPR metrics describe behavior among existing holders, the Coinbase premium index helps describe demand conditions—particularly from U.S. participants. CryptoQuant tracks the difference between BTC/USDT pricing on Coinbase versus Binance; when the premium is negative, the indicator suggests the U.S. market is not paying a “premium” relative to global liquidity.

In this latest update, CryptoQuant reports the Coinbase premium has failed to return to positive territory and remains negative. The firm says it moved above zero only briefly on hourly time frames as Bitcoin broke above $78,500, but it has not sustained a positive reading.

As of Wednesday, CryptoQuant lists the Coinbase premium at -0.015, compared with -0.094 at the start of August. Even with that improvement, the index remains below zero—an asymmetry that matters because it suggests that despite improving activity and price strength, the broader U.S. buyer base is not yet strong enough to lift demand sentiment into “buying over sellers” territory.

CryptoQuant frames the next signal plainly: whether the premium can cross above zero and remain positive. The firm argues that if Bitcoin continues recovering while the Coinbase premium turns positive, the market could shift from easing selling pressure toward a phase characterized by stronger renewed U.S. spot demand.

What to monitor next: holder profits versus fresh inflows

For now, CryptoQuant’s data points to a market where holder cohorts are, in aggregate, already in profit—meaning there is potential for realized selling to reappear during pullbacks or consolidation. At the same time, the Coinbase premium suggests U.S. spot demand is still not fully supporting sustained breakout conditions.

Going forward, investors should watch whether the SOPR ratio stabilizes rather than continues sliding, and whether the Coinbase premium can hold above zero. Those two developments—profit-taking dynamics among holders and persistent demand signals from U.S. trading venues—may determine whether $80,000 becomes a new floor or remains a ceiling.

Ethereum developers warned on Aug. 24 that planned gas changes in the Glamsterdam upgrade could disrupt a small group of Layer 1 smart contracts.

The Ethereum Foundation urged developers to test contracts and update fixed gas assumptions before mainnet activation.

The warning concerns EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, which are scheduled for inclusion in Glamsterdam. Developers said most contracts remained unaffected during transaction replays, while many flagged cases could be corrected by raising their gas limits.

Ethereum gas repricing changes state costs

EIP-8037 changes how Ethereum charges for creating state, including new accounts, storage slots and deployed contract bytecode. It introduces separate state-gas accounting intended to prevent rapid blockchain-state growth as Ethereum increases network capacity.

EIP-8038 raises costs for accessing existing state. The proposal covers operations including SLOAD, SSTORE, cold account access, EXTCODESIZE and EXTCODECOPY.

Ethereum developers last broadly adjusted state-operation prices during the Berlin upgrade in 2021. Since then, Ethereum’s state has expanded, while validators have supported higher block gas limits.

The Ethereum Foundation said repricing resource-heavy operations is necessary before the network can safely raise capacity further. Developers designed the new schedule around a performance target that could support roughly three times the current base throughput.

Hardcoded gas assumptions create compatibility risks

Developers replayed historical Ethereum mainnet transactions under Glamsterdam’s proposed pricing schedule. They sorted the results into unchanged transactions, successful transactions with different gas usage, failures fixable through higher limits and potentially broken transactions.

The last group continued to fail even after researchers raised the supplied gas substantially. The Foundation’s warning identified fixed gas stipends, hardcoded call limits, logic based on gasleft() and presigned transactions with fixed limits as recurring risk factors.

Contracts that use Solidity’s historical 2,300-gas stipend through transfer or send may require particular attention. Operations that previously completed within that allowance may consume more gas under the new state-access schedule.

The Foundation has not publicly identified every affected application. It said direct outreach to the most affected builders was already underway and described the potentially broken group as small.

Wallets and gas estimators also require updates

The warning extends beyond smart contracts. Wallets, RPC providers, indexers and node tools must update their gas-estimation systems to recognize the revised cost rules.

Software using cached constants could underestimate the gas needed for a transaction and cause it to fail. Both proposals require tools using eth_estimateGas and related functions to account for the revised state costs.

As crypto.news previously reported, Glamsterdam could also disrupt wallets and gas tools that assume ordinary transfers always require 21,000 gas. Transfers to existing accounts retain that figure, while transfers creating new accounts will incur an additional state charge.

Regular users do not need to make manual changes, according to the Foundation. Updated wallet and infrastructure providers should apply the necessary gas estimates automatically.

Developers can test fixes on Platåberget

Ethereum developers launched the Platåberget testnet to provide a long-running environment for Glamsterdam testing. The network, also called glam-devnet-8, already runs the new repricing schedule.

Contract maintainers can enter an address into Ethereum’s checker to identify historical transactions that diverge under the proposed rules. Developers should raise supplied gas limits when that resolves the issue or review individual call sites when failures persist.

In related coverage, Ethereum’s Glamsterdam work has moved Layer 1 scaling back into focus through gas repricing, block-level access lists and changes to block construction.

The next stage will involve additional devnet testing, followed by forks on Sepolia and Hoodi. Ethereum’s roadmap targets Glamsterdam for Q4 2026, but developers have not announced a fixed mainnet activation date. The final schedule depends on stable client implementations and successful public-testnet deployments.

Bitcoin (BTC) remains sensitive to sell-side pressure at $80,000, even as investors broadly avoid mass profit-taking.

Key points:

• Bitcoin investors’ unrealized profit and loss crosses above zero for all cohorts, apparently slowing price momentum.
• Long-term holders see a spike in profitability to 1.48, while short-term holders still account for the majority of in-profit coins moving onchain.
• The Coinbase premium fails to return to positive territory at -0.015, underscoring lackluster US demand.

Older Bitcoin investors reactivate around 14-week highs

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals that older coins in particular moved onchain as BTC/USD gained more than 25% over the past week. 

The spent output profit ratio (SOPR), which is the ratio of the current value of recently spent UTXOs to their value at creation, ticked up to 1.48 on Aug. 22, indicating increased onchain activity involving in-profit coins. 

Bitcoin LTH-SOPR. Source: CryptoQuant

As price consolidated around $79,500, the so-called SOPR ratio, which divides the SOPR of short-term holders (STH) by that of long-term holders (LTHs), hit 1.4, its highest reading since July 25.  STH and LTH refer to wallets that hold BTC without selling for up to six months (STH) or longer than six months (LTH). 

“This suggests long-term holders were realizing profits at a higher relative rate than short-term holders. The ratio has since fallen to 0.93, indicating that short-term holders’ realized performance is now relatively stronger,” CryptoQuant commented about the latest readings in a blog post on Tuesday.

The SOPR ratio has formed a broad downtrend since early 2025, and at the end of June hit 0.62, its lowest levels in three years as BTC/USD dropped to $58,000. Despite only reversing modestly higher, price has still failed to stay above $80,000.

Bitcoin SOPR ratio. Source: CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant notes that all holder cohorts are now in profit on aggregate, presenting a potential hurdle to further gains that only sustained buyer support could overcome. 

“The key question is not whether Bitcoin can briefly touch $80,000, but whether new demand can absorb selling from profitable holders,” it summarized, suggesting that this demand could come from ongoing return of inflows to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Bitcoin unrealized profit/loss data by wallet cohort. Source: CryptoQuant

US investor demand remains weak

Other data suggests that in spite of hitting local highs, Bitcoin has not yet convinced the broader investor base to return to the market.

Related: BTC RSI bullish divergence draws 2022 comparisons as analysis weighs new price trend

CryptoQuant shows that the Coinbase premium — the difference in price between Coinbase’s and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs — remains negative, moving above its zero line just briefly on hourly time frames as price broke above $78,500.

“The next key signal will be whether the index can cross above zero and remain positive. If Bitcoin continues recovering while the Coinbase premium turns positive, the market could shift from ‘selling pressure is easing’ to a stronger phase of renewed U.S. spot demand,” CryptoQuant analysis stated this week.

The Coinbase premium reflects US investor demand and has been broadly negative throughout 2026. As of Wednesday, it measured -0.015, up from -0.094 at the start of August.

Bitcoin Coinbase premium index. Source: CryptoQuant