Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from its all-time high in November 2021 and has triggered selling pressure with it. While it seemed that institutional investors were going to hold through the bear market, this has not been the case. Over the last couple of months, the sale of bitcoin in the open market has ramped up, and institutional investors have been revealed to have sold a large percentage of their holdings.
The sell-offs from the institutional investors have been rocking the market, but due to the sales not being disclosed at the time of the sales, the market did not know these companies were offloading their holdings until much later.
It had started with the collapse of LUNA when the market had seen billions of dollars wiped off the market cap. This had been a big blow to the market, and investors scrambled to get out of the market. During this time, the profitability of the investment of a lot of institutions had plummeted, leading them to offload either to keep their activities going or just to prevent more losses.
Related Reading | FTX Token Trading Volume Shows Ethereum Whales Are Becoming Bullish
Recent data now shows that these institutional investors had sold off large holdings of BTC. At first, it was thought to be just the bitcoin miners who were to finance their operations. However, much larger, more cashflow positive companies have also been selling their bitcoin.
Instituional investors dump BTC | Source: Arcane Research
Elon Musk’s Tesla had announced that it had sold almost $1 billion worth of BTC. A total of 29,060 BTC was sold by the company, which amounted to 75% of its bitcoin holding, and the sale took place sometime in the last two months.
Others who have sold their coins are the miners. In May alone, the miners sold 4,556 BTC, the first time that miners had sold more bitcoin than they had produced in a month. The next month, June saw even more sell-offs, with miners offloading 14,600 in June, way more than their production capacity.
BTC trending at $21,300 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Mostly, the rise in inflation had also gotten to these companies. With individual investors panicking, the selling pressure had grown like wildfire. This has led to a total of 236,237 BTC that has been sold by institutional investors over the course of two months, accounting for 1% of the total supply.
Related Reading | DeFi TVL Sheds $5 Billion As Tokens Record Double-Digit Losses
Nevertheless, the sell-offs have begun to subside. Mostly, as the price of bitcoin has succumbed to the bears, a lot of investors are seeing their portfolio in the red and, rather than selling for a loss, have entered an accumulation phase to hold through the bear market.
Featured image from The Conversation, charts from Arcane Research and TradingView.com
Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet…
The Nigerian High Court has ordered Binance to provide user data to the EFCC amidst allegations of criminality, impacting the cryptocurrency landscape in Nigeria.
WeiliangNotcoin, a popular Telegram clicker game, is preparing for a token airdrop, attracting millions of players and introducing NFT vouchers for trading.
AlexAethir sold $60 million of Checkers nodes in under 30 minutes, aiming for decentralization. Its low-barrier approach includes NFT licenses and easy software operation.
MiyukiDespite Ethereum's recent decline, a rare CryptoPunks NFT, Punk #7804, fetched $16.42 million, highlighting the enduring appeal of digital collectibles.
WeiliangCoinbase's Base blockchain faces challenges amid Ethereum's network surge, exacerbated by the meme coin craze, causing transaction disruptions and rising fees.
AlexCCData's report highlights stablecoin market growth, with USDT surpassing $100 billion and Ethena's USDe emerging as a significant player.
MiyukiAcademics have uncovered a severe vulnerability in Apple's M-series chips, allowing hackers to access encryption keys. This "unpatchable" flaw poses a significant challenge to Apple's security infrastructure.
AlexSchwartz's cryptic tweet suggests a future XRP price of $5. SEC victories and a new trading bot add intrigue. XRP's price shows volatility.
MiyukiAIOZ Network partners with Alibaba Cloud, becoming the leading blockchain ally in their Innovation Accelerator program, aiming to revolutionize southeast Asia's blockchain landscape.
WeiliangA Binance executive, detained in Nigeria over a tax evasion case, reportedly escaped using a fake passport. The incident has raised questions about security and regulatory oversight in the crypto space.
Alex