Altcoin Investors Losing Money for 1.5 Years – Glassnode Exposes the Real Numbers!

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Altcoin Holders Have Been Realizing Losses Since 2024, Glassnode Says

As a researcher studying on-chain data, I’ve been looking into how altcoin investors have been performing. What we’ve found at Glassnode is that, generally, they’ve been experiencing losses since late 2024.

Median SOPR In The Altcoin Sector Has Been Stuck Below 1

Glassnode recently shared an observation on X about a growing trend in the median Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) for altcoins. SOPR is a widely used on-chain metric that helps determine if traders are, overall, selling their coins at a profit or a loss.

If the metric is above 1, it indicates that most investors are selling to take profits. If it’s below 1, it suggests investors are generally selling at a loss. A value of exactly 1 means profits and losses are balancing each other out, meaning holders are, overall, breaking even.

Here’s a chart from Glassnode illustrating how the median Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) has changed over the past few years for the 500 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

The graph shows that the average Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) for the top 500 cryptocurrencies reached 1 during the recent market recovery. This indicates that many investors sold their altcoins when they reached the point of breaking even. Since then, the market has turned downwards. Over the past week, Bitcoin has fallen by over 4%, and Ethereum has lost 7%. Other major cryptocurrencies, including XRP and Solana, have also experienced significant losses.

Looking at the data, I’ve observed a resurgence of loss realization within the crypto sector, coinciding with the recent market pullback. The median SOPR for the top 500 coins continues to stay below 1, indicating that, on average, traders are still realizing losses. While there were a couple of short-lived moments above 1 during 2025, the last significant break into profitable territory happened way back in late 2024. This suggests that the typical altcoin trader has been operating at a loss for about a year and a half.

Despite a strong market recovery for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies last year, many investors continued to experience losses. It’s unclear what, if anything, will improve the situation for those trading altcoins.

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2026-05-20 08:31