Bitcoin holders lock in $1.03 billion in profits as price pulls back

Bitcoin holders cashed out in a big way on October 8, 2026. According to Santiment, they realized approximately $1.03 billion in profits that day, the second-highest daily total of the year. Bitcoin had just climbed above $87,000, and plenty of people decided that was a fine moment to collect their winnings. Holders booked more profit than loss during the pullback, which looks like profit-taking rather than capitulation. What the numbers show When Santiment flags a surge in realized profit, it means a lot of coins changed hands above their purchase price. On October 8, that added up to approximately $1.03 billion. Most of those gains came from short-term holders. Many of their coins headed to exchanges, which is usually where you send Bitcoin when you plan to sell it. Over the following week, Bitcoin slid around 5%, settling into a range of $80,300 to $82,500. The broader crypto market saw over $1 billion in liquidations, mostly from long positions. Those are traders who borrowed to bet on higher prices and got forcibly closed out when the market moved against them. Data from CryptoQuant showed short-term holder unrealized profit margins reached as high as 33%, the highest level ob...