Crypto Insiders Dump $1.7B in Stocks - Bull Market Exit Strategy or Smart Profit-Taking?

Crypto's biggest players are cashing out—hard. Insider stock sales hit a staggering $1.7 billion in 2025, signaling either peak confidence or peak caution among the industry's most connected figures.

The Great Unloading

Founders, executives, and early investors are quietly exiting positions while retail FOMO still fuels the market. They're not just taking profits—they're taking entire fortunes off the table.

Timing the Top

This isn't scattered selling; it's coordinated capital flight. The same insiders who preached 'HODL' during bear markets are now executing exit strategies with surgical precision.

Meanwhile, traditional finance guys are still trying to explain why blockchain is just a 'glorified database'—right before their compliance departments finally approve a Bitcoin ETF... in 2026.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire alone made $46.4 million by selling nearly 1.6 million shares on Circle’s second day of trade, some flowing through a trust. The stock was sold for $29.30 on average, while CRCL’s share price has since climbed past $135 — a 360% increase.

Still, that technically places Allaire in fifth position by value generated by stock sales for 2025 to date, excluding VC firms General Catalyst Group VI and Chuang Xi Capital, which cashed in $104 million and $68.2 million in shares, respectively, directly following Circle’s IPO.

As for who’s been selling the most stock in crypto, at least out of company executives, it’s Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, hands down.

Armstrong has sold $485.8 million in COIN shares so far this year through a trust, per OpenInsider data, which collates SEC filings. 

That’s nearly $85 million more than former Robinhood CEO Bhatt Baiju’s $399.7 million worth of shares, and almost $300 million more than current CEO Vlad Tenev’s $207.1 million.

Not all insiders have been strictly dumping, however. Nine execs from Strategy have actually been buying shares over the past five months or so, led by Peter L. Briger, a recently-appointed company director and former co-CEO at Fortress Investment Group. 

Briger participated in the STRC preferred stock offering in July to the tune of $19.8 million through an LLC. 

What does any of this tell us about where we’re at in the cycle? It’s obviously been hot enough for insiders to start itching for a big payday, it seems. 

Are they savvy enough to have sold the top? 

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