Bitcoin's recent advance may be cooling, but that does not mean the bull market is over, according to a new report from data analytics firm CryptoQuant, which has flagged early signs of profit-taking — the practice of selling coins that have climbed in value to lock in gains.

Bitcoin was recently priced at $82,939, down nearly 4% over a seven-day period, after surging to an eight-month high of $87,251 last week.

That surge prompted CryptoQuant to declare that Bitcoin had entered a bull market. The firm's reasoning: the leading cryptocurrency crossed above its 365-day moving average — the "definitive technical signal" that has marked the start of Bitcoin bull markets in past cycles. A moving average tracks an asset's average price over a set period, and the 365-day version is widely watched as a gauge of the long-term trend.

However, short-term traders — those who hold coins for one to three months — are sitting on an average unrealized profit of roughly 33%, CryptoQuant added. That is the highest level since December 2024. Such gains remain on paper until coins are actually sold, and profit margins of that magnitude have historically tempted holders to sell.

The report noted that holders last week realized 25.7K BTC in profit — the largest single day of 2026 — with the milestone coming one day after Bitcoin's price smashed through its eight-month high. Realized profit measures the gains locked in when coins change hands on-chain above the price at which they were previously acquired.

CryptoQuant said that while Bitcoin's price still has room to run, the rally is losing steam and a near-term correction looks increasingly likely.

The firm did not predict how far the price could fall, but it identified three support levels where a correction could find a floor: the 365-day moving average at about $80,000, the 200-day moving average at about $71,000, and traders' on-chain realized price at about $67000 — a metric that estimates the average price at which the current bitcoin supply last changed hands.

As long as those levels hold, CryptoQuant said, any pullback would amount to a healthy consolidation within a young bull market rather than a trend reversal.

Bitcoin notched a record of $126,080 in October of last year, but began sinking later that month after the biggest liquidation event in crypto history saw over $19 billion in bets closed. The slump extended through the first half of this year after the Federal Reserve made clear it was in no hurry to lower interest rates, while investors increasingly channeled money into artificial intelligence-related stocks in search of returns.

The so-called debasement trade — in which investors buy an asset to hedge against a currency losing its value — has heated up again after total U.S. debt topped $40 trillion for the first time in July. Bitcoin and precious metals such as gold have historically performed well when the dollar has weakened.

This report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.