Inactive Bitcoin activity declined in the second quarter. It fell to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022. The numbers were shared by Alex Thorn, head of company-wide research at Galaxy Digital, in a post on X.
The renaissance of cryptocurrencies has historically coincided with profit-taking by long-term Bitcoin holders.
Bitcoin’s dormant awakening is slowing after a two-year sell-off
Passive coin movement occurs when Bitcoin stays flat for years, then moves again. They are closely watched by analysts, and activity in legacy portfolios often coincides with selling. Quiet wallets indicate that their holders are holding on tight.
“Organizations make profits,” Thorne He saidcomparing the pattern to Bitcoin’s bull market in 2017. Most Bitcoin veterans who wanted to sell into 2024 and 2025, in his reading, are done. This represents less local selling pressure in the market. Ruined Currency Days tells a similar story. This metric, which measures spending weighted by how long coins have been idle, also fell in the second quarter.
Thorne described the two-year period as a “great distribution” in mid-July. He wrote that 2024 and 2025 have driven as much movement on the long-dormant Bitcoin chain as the entire 2017 rally, and nothing in between has come close. He pegged the pace of 2026 as less than half of the reactivations of dormant currencies last year.
The Galaxy charts go back to 2016. They show a recurring cycle, with older currencies waking up during the rallies of 2017 and 2021 and again during the rallies of 2024 and 2025. Holders of coins between 1 and 10 years old have moved large sums, most of them for sale. Distribution peaked at the end of 2025, with coins between one and two years old accounting for about 900,000 BTC moved in a single month. This year, that flow dried up.
The activation volume of dormant coins in Q2 was the lowest since Q3 2022 and fell significantly from the high levels in 2024 and 2025. pic.twitter.com/thrC9K6Gdx
– Alex Thorne (@intangiblecoins) July 25, 2026
Bitcoin hovers near $65,000 as whale selling eases
Bitcoin’s cooling comes after a sharp decline. The token reached an all-time high of over $126,000 in October 2025. It then fell around 48% to trade at around $65,265 by mid-July. And it is commerce Priced at $64,808.55 at the time of writing.
But Thorne disputed one theory circulating online. “We work with a lot of whales and no one mentioned quantity as a reason for selling,” he said. Thorne said Galaxy is working with a wide range of institutional investors, and no one cited quantum risk as a reason for closing the position. Quantity Fear often discourages outside buyers more than encourages current owners to sell, he said.
Major shareholders had been clearly selling for several months before the slowdown. On July 3, Cryptopolitan I mentioned Several whale wallets, including one owned by venture capitalist Tim Draper and others containing mining company reserves, were transferring coins to exchanges. Bitcoin was trading at around $57,950 at the time, a 21-month low.
