Glassnode Exposes the Shadow Puppeteers Fueling Crypto’s Latest Pump

Behind every parabolic rally, there’s a whale—or a cabal of them—pulling strings. Glassnode’s latest on-chain data tears back the curtain on who’s really driving this cycle’s price action.

Hint: It’s not your neighbor’s Dogecoin stash.

The usual suspects? Institutional accumulation patterns, exchange net outflows big enough to sink a stablecoin, and those eerily precise algorithmic buy walls. Retail FOMO arrives fashionably late—just in time for the smart money to unload bags.

Funny how crypto’s ’decentralized’ theater always stars the same Wall Street reruns—just with worse compliance and better memes.

Bitcoin is on the move again, now trading NEAR $109K and hitting a $2.11 trillion market cap. But what’s driving these big price changes? A new update from Glassnode, a leading blockchain data firm, helps explain. It shows how the two main types of buyers, long-term believers and first-time investors are play very different roles in the market.

And yes, emotions are still a big part of the story, too.

Why Conviction Buyers Matter at Turning Points

Glassnode’s latest analysis looks at investor behavior using spending patterns on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ERC-20 tokens. According to the data, conviction buyers and first-time buyers play very different roles.

Conviction buyers are long-term believers. They don’t get shaken during downturns. In fact, Glassnode shows that these buyers usually appear around market bottoms, when fear is at its highest. In bull markets, they help by buying the dips, preventing steep pullbacks, and adding support during minor corrections.

Understanding who is behind price moves is critical to navigating market cycles. This new visualization, based on spending patterns, reveals how investor behavior shapes trend reversals and continuation – available across $BTC, $ETH, and #ERC20 tokens. For example:pic.twitter.com/sDsLQ0Cvml

But conviction alone isn’t enough to push prices higher. For that, you need something else, fresh demand.

First-Time Buyers Push Prices Higher

To get a strong rally, Glassnode says you need “First-Time Buyers.” These are people who are buying Bitcoin or ethereum for the first time. When lots of new buyers come in, they bring fresh money into the market, and that’s what often causes prices to rise fast.

For example, from July to December 2024 and again from March to May 2025, Glassnode saw a big jump in these new buyers. Both times, Bitcoin’s price went up quickly afterward. This shows how powerful new demand can be.

Emotions Still Rule the Market

Even though charts and data are helpful, most traders still act based on emotion. Many retail traders follow fear, hype, or social media buzz. On the other hand, professional market makers use this emotional trading to their advantage.

That’s why Glassnode created something called the “FOMOmeter.” It helps track when traders are getting too excited or too scared.