Months More Bitcoin Consolidation Expected as Long-term Holder Activity Decreases

Bitcoin prices could continue to consolidate for a while yet, as network activity indicates decreasing momentum amid reduced selling pressure. 

Bitcoin didn’t remain above $70,000 for long and has fallen back below it in early trading on Wednesday morning. Resistance was too strong, and it has returned to the middle of its five-week range-bound channel.

Long-term holder activity has decreased significantly, declining to levels typically seen during bear markets, according to CryptoQuant analyst ‘Darkfost’ on X on Wednesday.

They added that this decline in activity “reflects a reduction in selling pressure, which likely helps Bitcoin continue consolidating.”

📉 LTH activity has decreased significantly, to the point where it has returned to levels typically seen during bear markets.

This chart shows the monthly total of BTC spent by LTHs.⁰Be careful when interpreting the spike in November, as it corresponds to the period when… pic.twitter.com/kXIRnpukdy

— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) March 10, 2026

Months of Boring Sideways Markets

Analyst ‘Daan Crypto Trades’ observed that it has been another week where BTC’s price closed below the 200-week exponential moving average, a very long-term trend indicator. He added that it tried to get back above it on this push early in the week, but failed, falling back below $70,000.

Meanwhile, the bull market support band is “moving down rapidly and will meet the price relatively quickly, as long as it keeps hovering around here,” he added. This could result in months of consolidation and sideways markets.

“My base case is still that we will spend quite a while in this larger, let’s say ~$60K-$80K region. Could easily take several months before we see a decisive move again, I think.”

“Back and forth. Back and forth. That’s the current rhythm of Bitcoin,” commented MN Fund founder Michaël van de Poppe on Tuesday. “No breakout, but the longer it stays in here, the stronger the move will be,” he added.

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Meanwhile, ‘RedHotTrade’ said Bitcoin is “compressing between $60,000 and $70,000 and “multiple technical patterns are forming at once.”

“When several patterns point to the same breakout level, the move that follows is often explosive.”

Analyst Matt Hughes observed that BTC price keeps getting rejected just above $71,000, “so we can’t celebrate a real breakout until weekly candles close above this level.”

Crypto Market Outlook

Crypto markets are flat on the day with total capitalization remaining at $2.45 trillion, close to where it has been since early February.

Bitcoin was rejected at $71,600 on Tuesday and had fallen back to $69,600 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Ether prices remained tightly coiled just above $2,000, slowly eroding previous minor gains.