Bitcoin‘s slump Thursday was blamed on hedge funds rebalancing their portfolios ahead of the quarter-end, but the selling to $50,000 found support at a time when signs pointing to the strength of the long-term ‘hold rose to a record high for the year.

BTC/USD fell 3.38% to $52,217, though had been as low as $50,350.

Net transfer volume from/to exchanges – the difference between the amount of bitcoin moving on versus off-exchange – fell to a record low for the year, suggesting the move from exchanges to private wallets – a long-term demand indicator – continues to accelerate.

Net transfer volume from/to exchanges fell to about -1,250 clusters on Thursday, data from on-chain analytics Glassnode showed.

Signs pointing to the strength of the long-term ‘hold come as hedge managers — who have been forced to look in riskier corners of the market like cryptocurrency or high-growth stocks in search of returns — are expected to have to tweak their portfolio allocations ahead of the quarter-end, shedding some riskier positions.

Bitcoin is expected to be one of the victims of the portfolio rebalance, or reshuffle, as managers attempt to move closer to 60% to 40% bond-equity allocation.

On-chain data also added credence to a portfolio shakeout from larger bitcoin holders as the bitcoin whale index, measuring the number of bitcoin addresses with at least 1,000 bitcoins, dropped 10% from its recent high of about 2,500 clusters.